


Daydreamer

by easytea



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, Minor Character Death, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-18 12:17:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11874225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easytea/pseuds/easytea
Summary: Baekhyun just wants to spend his days admiring his TA, but the world has a different plan for him (or maybe it's trying to help him).





	Daydreamer

**Author's Note:**

> To the prompter: Thank you for prompting this! Despite me taking forever to finish this, I enjoyed every bit of writing it. And I hope you don’t mind that I kept it fairly light despite the world ending
> 
> To my beta: Thank you for coming in when you did and saving me. I feel lucky to have you and hope you didn’t mind correcting all my mistakes too much.
> 
> To the mods: Thank you for even creating this fest! You have been nothing short of amazing and as a tweet said, you all really are angels. Thank you for all the resources and encouragements and being so understanding. I really enjoyed participating in this fest.
> 
> To all: I do hope you enjoy reading this!!
> 
> (This was loosely inspired by/based off of A Day After Tomorrow. I hope I got it right considering I've never watched the movie; I only read the summary haha)

Yixing’s lips are moving as he reads from the book currently in his hand. Then his hands are moving as he scribbles something down on the chalkboard. And finally his legs are moving to situate himself back in front of the small classroom. Baekhyun has no idea of what he’s saying or if it’s all that important. Instead Baekhyun pays attention to the sound of his TA’s voice—soft and calming—perfect for him to listen to. He pays attention to the grip his TA’s hands have on the book he’s holding—gentle yet firm—perfect for him to hold. And he definitely pays attention to the way his TA’s thighs look as he seats himself on the front desk—strong and thick—perfect for support as Yixing would lift Baekhyun up against the nearest wall to pin him in place to kiss.

It’s a wonder how Baekhyun has managed to make it halfway through the course without spouting something embarrassing about his crush. But maybe that has to do with Jongdae and Chanyeol sitting at his sides and keeping him from shouting how amazing their TA’s body looks in tight jeans and a plain, white V-neck. Although, Baekhyun thinks he’s going to combust if he can’t give Yixing a single compliment soon. Baekhyun sighs at nothing in particular and takes himself away from his thoughts to actually focus on what Yixing is saying.

“—so I’ll leave you to it and you all can start now,” Yixing says (or rather finishes) before heading to sit at his desk to read out of a book Baekhyun doesn’t recognize.

 _Oops_ , Baekhyun thinks, proceeding to glance around the classroom for any hints of the daily exercise he knows he’s supposed to be doing. Of course everyone is busy either writing or typing away, so Baekhyun looks over to Chanyeol to see him hurriedly scribbling into his notebook. Still, there is no topic for today written anywhere on his paper. He then peeks over at Jongdae’s laptop and thankfully his friend does have their exercise typed at the top of his document. _Use today’s or rather, this past week’s hectic weather, as a setting to write whatever_ , the first line on Jongdae’s document reads.

 _Bless Jongdae_ , Baekhyun thinks and gets straight to typing—or at least tries. The weather lately has been crazy to say the least, going from cold to hot to rainy to everything else in between. And Baekhyun knows it’s still hurricane season, but in his three years of living in this town, he’s never seen such dramatic drops or raises in temperature or the sky going from eerily dark and cloudy to bright and clear. It’s a little on the creepy side, but Jongdae continues to say not to worry and _that’s just how the weather here is sometimes_. It makes him feel a sense of nervousness despite Jongdae's words and his friend having lived here his entire life.

Writing about it only gives him more anxiety, but he still tries. When twenty minutes have passed, Yixing gets up from his desk to stand in front of it and all Baekhyun has written is three and a half sentences. Baekhyun hears Yixing clear his throat and he pays attention.

“So, now that we’ve gotten our writing exercise out the way, I want you all to pair up and discuss it with a classmate for five or so minutes,” Yixing begins explaining. “And since some of you have expressed wanting to dedicate a little class time to your short story, which is due in one month exactly by the way, I thought we could the remainder of class doing just that.” Baekhyun wonders if their TA will allow groups of three. “Since there’s an odd number of students today, I’ll pair up with whatever student hasn’t found a partner.” Or maybe this is the perfect chance to chat with Yixing.

“Why can’t one group just work with three?” Chanyeol asks while raising his hand and Baekhyun wishes his friend was sick or had overslept this morning.

“Ah, I didn’t think of that,” Yixing says with a quiet laugh following behind. “Well then, why do—”

“But don’t you think the one on one interaction is much better?” Baekhyun quickly interrupts with. He _is not_ going to let this opportunity slip by.

“Wouldn’t that be an unfair advantage? Getting to work with the TA.” Chanyeol questions once more as he looks to Baekhyun and then their TA and Baekhyun wants to strangle him. _Unfair advantage my ass_ , Baekhyun thinks. It would be Chanyeol who’d find a flaw and make Baekhyun’s life that much harder.

Yixing nods his head. “Good point. Then how about three students work together?”

“Wouldn’t that be a disadvantage for the group of three?” Baekhyun asks as he attempts to look directly at Yixing, but his focus turns to his lips instead. He somehow manages to continue, “I mean, sure we’d get another helpful ear and eye, but that would also cut into the time we have to spend on each student and story. We’re doing workshop later in the semester and it’s not like the writing center or your office hours don’t exist before then if we need the extra help.” He hopes his words are enough to convince Yixing.

Yixing doesn’t answer right away, looking too concentrated on Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s words. There’s nothing but silence filling the room. Baekhyun glances over to Chanyeol to see his brow furrowed and then he’s opening his mouth.

“It’s still—” Chanyeol tries to start, but is quickly interrupted.

“Oh my god Chanyeol. Shut the fuck up. I am dying in this course and need the TA’s help,” Baekhyun nearly yells, making his classmates snicker.

“But yesterday you sa—” Chanyeol tries to speak once more, but this time a pen lands on the top of his head, effectively cutting him off. “Ouch.” Chanyeol pouts as he rubs his head.

“Thanks Jongdae,” Baekhyun whispers and Jongdae whispers back, _You owe me_. “So I can work with Yixing?” Baekhyun asks as his gives the classroom a once over. There are only shrugs and his classmates start to chatter amongst themselves, presumably to discuss their work.

Baekhyun sighs in relief and gets up to sit at one of the empty tables in the back, taking his laptop with him. He sees Yixing follow from the corner of his eye. Once settled at the table, Baekhyun hands over his computer to Yixing.

“Three sentences, huh?” Yixing says more as a statement and clearly amused by Baekhyun barely accomplishing anything. “Too busy staring off into space again?”

Baekhyun feels his cheeks flush, embarrassed by the fact that Yixing has taken notice of his habit of not paying attention. Again.

“It’s better than nothing,” Baekhyun says uncaringly, yet still defensive. “Aren’t you always saying even writing a few words a day is better than nothing?”

“I am,” Yixing smiles and Baekhyun wants to melt. He breathes deep to remain calm and keeps his gaze toward the table over his TA. “So why don’t we talk about these three sentences.”

“What’s there to say? It’s just three barely thought out sentences of someone waiting in the airport. I didn’t even get to the weather.”

“Is there a reason for that? I’ve noticed you tend to skip over describing the elements in your other exercises.”

“Not really,” Baekhyun answers and then gives as an explanation, “Other than a limited vocab of how to paint a clear image of weather.” It’s mostly due to laziness if he were being honest. Most of his exercises were done in the last five minutes of their given time and he can’t be bothered to be descriptive on such short notice.

Yixing hums and then says, “Why don’t I look over what you have for your short story?”

“It should be the other document open,” Baekhyun says and then waits. It doesn’t take too much time for Yixing to read through what he has so far—seven and a half pages of a lost fairy trying gain its freedom. It’s nothing spectacular, but Baekhyun’s proud of the fact that he’s halfway to the required amount of pages needed for submission.

“For someone who took this course because of his friends, you’re a decent writer,” Yixing says when he hands Baekhyun back his computer. Baekhyun had almost forgotten he gave that reason on the first day when Yixing had asked why they signed up for Creative Writing.

“You think so?” Baekhyun asks, genuinely shocked his writing could be considered decent. He’d label it as barely passing at best.

“I wouldn’t lie to any student. It doesn’t do any good for them,” Yixing says and a sense of pride washes over Baekhyun. “Your vocab isn’t as limited as you think, but it could use a bit more of description in certain areas. And you use a lot of ellipses instead of full sentences, but those things can be improved on.” It sounds like an awful lot needs for his story to be improved, but Yixing’s earlier comment makes Baekhyun wonder if he should put in the effort. He only took this course because he had heard Zhang Yixing was hot and easy going. Plus he figured making up some story couldn't be that hard. But now he feels more confident that he can churn out something more than decent. “Oh! Let me comment on the doc,” Yixing says, a tiny bit enthusiastically, and Baekhyun gets ready to hand over his computer again, but the TA is already getting up out of his seat and setting his chair right next to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun’s heart beats rapidly as Yixing leans in close to get a better view of Baekhyun’s computer and starts typing comments one after the other. Yixing doesn’t move the laptop and he reaches into Baekhyun’s personal space with each new word written, arm brushing against Baekhyun’s own. He’s sure the position Yixing’s currently in is awkward and makes it hard to type, but Baekhyun isn’t complaining; no, he’s more than grateful to be this close, close enough to take in the scent of something sweet. _Buttercream? Buttercake?_ Whatever it is, all it does is make Baekhyun want to explore every inch that is Yixing’s body and plant kisses anywhere he can. And he’s sure his TA is speaking to him, giving him notes on certain paragraphs and explaining things, but Baekhyun hardly listens and gives short _Oh yeahs_ and _I sees_ as answers to play it off as if he were and not thinking about what Yixing looks like underneath his clothes. It seems to work as he hears no complaints from his TA. By the time Yixing finishes, it’s nearly time for class to be over. Yixing gets up, not bothering to put the chair back into place, and pats Baekhyun on the shoulder and walks to the front of the class. It takes Baekhyun a few moments to reel himself back into reality from Yixing’s touch and go to his regular seat to start packing up.

“Okay, I’ll see you next time and I’ll post the readings for next class onto the blackboard,” Yixing announces to dismiss class. Baekhyun watches Yixing pack his own bag and then head out. It takes a nudge from Jongdae for Baekhyun to zip up his backpack and put on his jacket.

Jongdae whistles and then says, “You got it bad,” as he, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol exit the room together to enter a crowded hall of students. “You should have seen yourself back there with Yixing.”

“You were practically drooling all over yourself, maybe even Yixing,” Chanyeol adds as unnecessary commentary, loud laughter drowning out the students’ chatter around them. “You might as well have jumped in his lap and confessed.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes and says, “Yeah right. Stop exaggerating.” He wishes he could sit in their TA’s lap or even confess without having to worry about the ethics behind it. He doesn’t need Yixing or himself getting into trouble over a silly crush. He can at least wait until next semester starts to see if Yixing would have any interest in dating him. “But it was nice,” Baekhyun admits as they exit the building. Baekhyun peers up at the sky to see dark gray clouds above and pulls his umbrella from the side pocket of his backpack just in case it rains suddenly.

“Oh, we know it was more than nice for you Byun Baekhyun,” Jongdae teases. “You’ve been dying at the chance to be alone with him since day one.”

Okay, so he has been a little eager in wanting to be next to Yixing or say something other than class related to their TA, but it isn’t like he’s had plenty of opportunities to do so. His work hours clash with Yixing’s office hours and there’s always some student staying behind to discuss something with him. But he’s pretty sure he wasn’t _drooling_ over Yixing or close enough to sit in his lap.

Baekhyun blows off the comment in favor of one of his other favorite things—food. “So,” he drawls out, “who’s hungry?”

“I heard they’re making omelettes on the grill all day,” Chanyeol excitedly gets out. “Let’s go to the M.P.?”

“They could be making anything over at the M.P. and you’d want to go,” Baekhyun says, turning the conversation from his lack of a love life to Chanyeol’s. “We know you’ve been _dying_ all semester to ask Sehun out.”

“At least dating Sehun is a lot more realistic than Yixing. What are you, like eighty years apart?”

“Oh please,” Baekhyun sighs dramatically. “Sehun is way too out of your league. He’d be ashamed to be seen with your clumsy ass. And Yixing and I are probably like five years, tops, apart.” Chanyeol snorts and hits Baekhyun on the shoulder playfully. “Age ain’t nothing but a number,” Baekhyun sings with a little dance. It makes both Jongdae and Chanyeol laugh.

From there, they don’t talk much about love lives and instead banter on who’s the best at League. Baekhyun claims it’s himself the rest of the way to the cafeteria while Chanyeol and Jongdae protest and try to argue why Baekhyun is the worst of the three despite him playing the most.

When they reach the M.P., each friend goes to a separate station for food. Chanyeol makes a beeline to the grilling station as Jongdae walks over to where they make sandwiches to probably have his usual chicken wrap made. Baekhyun stands in place for a few seconds longer, not caring about inconveniencing other students, before he’s picking up a tray and heads straight for the pizza. He grabs a bowl full of strawberries and bottle of coke before paying for his food and heads to the table where Jongdae is already seated. Of course his friend would pick the table closest to the wall T.V. It never shows anything good, but Jongdae always seems to be into it.

“We need to stop coming to the M.P.,” Baekhyun starts as he sets down his tray and takes a seat. “I can’t mooch off your meal plans if we keep coming here.”

“No one forced you to live off campus,” Jongdae says and stuffs a few fries in his mouth. “Should have just stayed our suitemate. Now we have to deal with two random weirdos instead of one.”

“Eh. It’s cheaper,” Baekhyun shrugs. “Enjoy your three thousand dollar meal plan debt.”

Jongdae opens his mouth to speak, but Chanyeol rushes over excitedly and sets his tray down rather harshly, effectively interrupting him.

“Guess what?” Chanyeol nearly shouts as he sits. Neither Jongdae nor Baekhyun speak so Chanyeol continues, “Sehun gave me his number.” Jongdae cheers in excitement and congratulates him for the small progress while Baekhyun pouts with a groan. “What, can’t be happy for me?” Chanyeol asks, solely speaking to Baekhyun.

“I am,” Baekhyun begins to explain his less than enthusiastic response, “It’s just that we were just talking about this! I thought we had at least another month to see you suffer.” It’s a complete lie, but Baekhyun knows now is not the time to be comparing their love lives, or rather his lack of one compared to Chanyeol’s blossoming romance.

“If you say so,” Chanyeol shrugs off and begins eating his food as well.

“Really, I am,” Baekhyun says cheerfully this time along with a thumbs up aimed at Chanyeol. “Maybe you’ll be able to replace one of your suitemates with him next year if this all works out.”

“Oh! Good idea.”

“No way,” Jongdae protests. “I do _not_ want to walk in or hear you two fucking. My ears need to be protected.”

“Because you sure cared about us not wanting to blind ourselves with bleach every time you bring some random person over,” Chanyeol retorts and Baekhyun shakes his head in agreement.

“Hey! This argument isn’t about me!” Jongdae half shouts.

“I can never look at Jongdae’s desk the same way again,” Baekhyun says to tease.

“Or his chair,” Chanyeol adds.

“And the mini fridge.”

“Don’t forget your beanbag chair,” Baekhyun says, pointing to Chanyeol with his pizza crust.

“When did that happen?” Chanyeol asks, horrified expression on his face.

“Hey! This isn’t fair,” Jongdae whines and both friends laugh at him.

After their laughter dies down, Baekhyun says, “Let’s go out to celebrate Chanyeol’s progress with Sehun. We can go to that on overpriced diner you like so much.”

“You paying?” Chanyeol asks.

“I’ll go half with Jongdae.”

“When did I agree to this?” Jongdae asks, question sounding a little put off, but Baekhyun knows his friend would do anything for Chanyeol. “I’m a broke college student.”

“A broke college student that had no problem living in the dorms when he could have stayed with his parents and went on a two month trip to Spain over the summer.”

Jongdae doesn’t say anything more. “Fine. We can go celebrate.” Chanyeol and Baekhyun hi-five each other. “My last class ends at nine-forty five though.”

“Tell the professor you have to leave early,” Chanyeol says as he gets up. “We’ll meet at Telly’s around eight-thirty?”

They all nod as Chanyeol leaves for his next class, leaving Baekhyun and Jongdae alone. From there, Baekhyun and Jongdae fill Chanyeol’s void by mostly talking of class with other random things throw in here and there due to listening to T.V. Jongdae's mini rant on his geography professor especially has Baekhyun laughing until his cheeks hurt. It isn’t until Jongdae has to leave for his class that they begin to clean up to head out for class.

“And don’t forget your wallet like last time,” Jongdae says as he stands and picks up his tray.

“Yeah, yeah,” Baekhyun says, brushing his friend off. He stands as well and gets ready to pick up his tray when the TV catches his eye with a _breaking news_ headline.

He listens and watches as a meteorologist comes on screen and starts explaining how a hurricane is fast approaching and will make it to their town within the next day or two. They warn that residents should start making preparations and evacuating as soon as possible.

“What’s wrong?” Jongdae asks as he sets down his tray. He follows Baekhyun’s eyes to the TV. “You aren’t scared of that, are you?”

“Shouldn’t we at least be concerned?” Baekhyun questions in return. “The weather’s been weird lately.” Baekhyun can’t shake the sense of uncertainty as he continues to stare at the screen.

“I wouldn’t be worried. This always happens and then nothing happens.” Jongdae picks up his tray once more and Baekhyun follows to put away his as well. “Walk with me to class.” Baekhyun simply nods and lets his friend lead the way. “I’ve lived here all my life and seriously, nothing happens.”

“Shouldn’t we have at least had a watch first? They said tomorrow morning at the earliest and that’s only sixteen—”

“Baekhyun, I know what I’m talking about,” Jongdae says when he cuts Baekhyun off. “You’re going to be fine. I’m going to be fine. This town is going to be fine. Just trust me.”

It still doesn’t seem right. He doesn’t remember the weather channel even mentioning hurricane conditions could be possible over the last few days and now they have a warning? Hurricanes don’t even happen that fast. It’s strange.

“You’re right,” Baekhyun says with a smile despite still feeling uneasy about it. “Want to take a bet on whether Chanyeol orders the cookie dough or birthday cake milkshake?”

“Neither. He’ll go for strawberry. He always gets that when he’s about to fuck someone.”

Baekhyun laughs. “Nah. I’m going with birthday cake. Next movie is on the loser.”

“Deal,” Jongdae says as they approach the building where his next class is to be held. “And remember don’t stress too much. See you at Telly’s.”

Baekhyun nods and tries to have trust in Jongdae’s words as he watches his friend disappear from sight.

 

 

It’s nearing eight o’clock when Baekhyun backs away from his desktop computer, shutting the machine down for the night. He had tried to use his time wisely by studying, but video games were all too tempting and after thirty minutes went by, he was quickly shutting his textbook and hopping onto his computer.

Baekhyun stretches his arms above his head before grabbing his umbrella from his backpack and light jacket from his bed. He pats his pockets to make sure his house keys, phone, and wallet are on him and heads out. He makes a mental note to remind the landlord that the front doorknob is still loose and needs be fixed. Or maybe he’ll ask Kyungsoo or Jongin to do it. They can be much more intimidating when they want something done.

It’s either a thirty minute walk or a ten minute drive down to Telly’s and Baekhyun has to save his gas for his shifts over at the bar this weekend. Despite the sky being completely dark, he decides to walk, quickly throwing on his jacket and popping open his umbrella to protect him from the light rain that started not long ago. He’ll just ask Jongdae to drive him back home.

It’s a bit on the windy side as Baekhyun begins his small journey to the diner. But, Baekhyun supposes, it probably has to do with the impending hurricane. _It’s normal_ , Baekhyun tells himself as the wind slowly picks up and the rain starts to pour a little faster. He can’t help but pay attention to the trees as he passes each house, brushing and whistling against one another a little rougher with each minute that goes by. If it weren’t for the streetlights, Baekhyun’s positive he’d be terrified and turn right back around and find comfort under his blankets for the next few days.

A few minutes is all it takes for Baekhyun's sense of safety to weaken as the wind outright howls into his ears and the streetlights flicker in and out. The neighborhood becomes darker when the lights dim, and a few pop, and the sky grows pitch black. The rain pours, _hard_ , and his umbrella is pushed right from his hands by the wind to be blow away. Baekhyun’s heart beats rapidly as he’s faced with uncertainty of what to do. He could turn around and go home, but that’s not even a straight way back and when he glances back, all he sees is darkness. The few lights up ahead that remain barely there don’t give much hope and standing around won’t get him anywhere.

Baekhyun picks up his steps as best as he can in an attempt to get to the diner faster, but even then that seems futile as the wind blows harshly against him and the rain blocks his already poor vision even further. Then the few remaining lights go completely out and it slows down his walking even more. He’s soaked and scared and doesn’t know what else to do. He doesn’t trust knocking on a random person’s door in fear of them turning him away or being weird. His only option is to keep walking. He wraps his arms around himself and makes a right onto what he can make out as the next street. Turning right should at least get him to the main road.

As he walks, Baekhyun tries not to focus on how he wishes he would have taken his car or asked Jongdae to pick him up. They’re much better ideas in hindsight, but he can’t change anything no matter how much he wishes he could. So instead, he focuses on Jongdae's words from earlier— _You’re going to be fine_. It’s all he has at the moment so he tells himself that this is just a really bad storm and he’s not walking around like an idiot in hurricane weather.

He thinks he’s nearing the end of the street—or maybe that’s just wishful thinking—after what seems like an eternity goes by when suddenly there are lights flashing at him from the side. Baekhyun stands there frozen, unsure of what to do and wondering can the person driving the approaching car can even see him.

“Baekhyun!” he hears a voice shout. “Baekhyun! Baekhyun!” they repeat twice more as the car gets closer. _Baekhyun?_ It takes a few moments for him to process that it was _his_ name being called—or maybe it’s a case of mistaken identity—and approaches the vehicle with his guards up. “Baekhyun, hurry and get in!” he’s somehow able to make out. His gut instinct is telling him that it’s okay and he hurries to get into the car. Once in, he looks to the side to see that it’s Yixing who’s practically saved him.

 _Yixing? Must be dreaming or dead,_ Baekhyun thinks as he tries to calm his breathing down, the shock from having to fight against the weather now slowly seeping in. Yixing, or the Yixing look-a-like, doesn't say anything and starts to drive.

“Yixing?” Baekhyun says quietly, cautiously once a few minutes have passed.

“You must be soaked right? I didn’t see an umbrella,” Yixing worriedly says in return and Baekhyun sighs in relief knowing he’d recognized the right person. “I’ll take you back to my place so you can change clothes.”

“Okay,” is all Baekhyun says in return. Not even a minute goes by before Baekhyun asks, “Can you keep talking? About anything,” hoping that listening to Yixing’s voice will help him remain calm. He always found it soothing during class so this should be no different.

“As a TA, you know we have to deal with the other professors right? And some of them are awful,” Yixing starts and Baekhyun tunes out the rest. He’s sure he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on Yixing’s story even if he wanted to. Instead he just listens to Yixing’s voice as if he were in class, not paying attention to any of the words, and how calm, _how safe_ it makes him feel. He doesn’t know how much time has gone by when Yixing’s car comes to a halt and Baekhyun can see a garage door. “We’re here,” Yixing says and shuts off his car. He can’t see again, but he hears Yixing’s door open and shut and it doesn’t take long for his to open and Yixing to grab him by the hand to pull him out. Baekhyun manages to shut it on his own and Yixing quickly guides them to what Baekhyun assumes is the front door.

As they enter the house Baekhyun continues to hold onto Yixing’s hand until his TA is letting go and turning on a light.

“Yes!” Yixing cheers and turns to Baekhyun. “Usually when the street lights go out, the electricity stays on. I think it’s on a separate grid or something. At least this side is. My neighbors across the street probably don’t have any.” Baekhyun can only nod, finding it a bit surreal that he’s in his crush’s house. “You kind of look like a soaked puppy. You’re even, shivering,” he comments, but then is quick to say, “Fuck, Baekhyun. Are you crying?” and steps in close to hold Baekhyun’s face in his hands. He hadn’t noticed the tears. “Listen, everything’s going to be okay. We’re going to be fine; you’re safe now.”

“I—”

“It’s okay. Let’s get you dry before the power ends up going out.” Yixing then takes Baekhyun’s hand into his own and guides him to the bathroom. Baekhyun keeps his fingers pressed lightly to his cheek the entire way there. “Take a hot shower and I’ll be back with some dry clothes when you’re done.”

Yixing almost leaves him alone, but Baekhyun is quick to grab the hem of his shirt. “Can you stay?” Baekhyun asks, praying that Yixing will. His TA always seemed to grant reasonable requests and Baekhyun doesn’t think he can handle his first hurricane alone, especially if the power goes out.

“Sure,” Yixing says. “Anything to help. I’ll just turn around while you strip.”

Baekhyun gulps hard and takes a large breath before peeling the clothes from his skin. As soon as the last sock is free from his foot, Baekhyun rushes to pull back the curtain just enough to quickly step into the shower, wanting to scrub his body clean. Before he can turn on the water, he hears Yixing speak.

“Hey, I’m going to grab you some clothes and I’ll be right back, okay?” Yixing doesn’t give Baekhyun the chance to acknowledge his words and is already out the bathroom, leaving the door cracked.

Baekhyun turns on the water to as hot as he can take it and the gross feeling his skin has slowly fades. He starts on his hair first, taking Yixing’s shampoo bottle into his hand and squirting just a bit into his free palm and begins to lather it up. Now that he knows he’s safe, Baekhyun allows himself to relax as the scent of vanilla wafts around him. He wonders if he got close enough would Yixing still smell of it or would it be faintly there. Baekhyun smiles to himself, still unable to believe he’s in Yixing’s house, _being taken care of by Yixing_ no less. It still feels dreamlike and he doubts his luck will last that long. After the weather shows any sign of letting up Yixing will probably want to drive him back home. Maybe this is fate’s way of giving him a chance to at least know what it’s like to kiss Yixing before it all ends and they go back the normal routine of Baekhyun not paying attention in class and his TA playfully commenting on it. Baekhyun isn’t one to waste an opportunity and decides he’ll make a move, whether it’s for the best or worst.

By the time Baekhyun is washing conditioner out of his hair, Yixing returns. Or at least, a blurry silhouette through the shower curtain that Baekhyun assumes to be Yixing.

“Took you long enough,” Baekhyun says loud enough for his TA to hear and laugh in response.

“Well, it’s been a while since I did laundry so I struggled a bit to find a clean shirt,” Yixing says when his laughter subsides and then adds, “Pants were easy.”

Baekhyun hums then says, “I need a washcloth. Unless you expect me to use my hands.”

Yixing clears his throat before responding with, “Ah, right. I’ll be right back. I won’t take forever this time,” and quickly makes another exit. Baekhyun smirks, wondering if he was successful in painting an image of washing himself with his bare hands in Yixing’s mind. True to his word, Yixing takes less than a minute to return and slips his hand into the shower for Baekhyun to take the washcloth. “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” Baekhyun says as he makes sure his fingers drag down what shows of Yixing’s arm and lets his hand linger a bit too long as he takes the cloth from his palm.

“No problem,” Yixing stutters quickly as he pulls his hand from the shower and Baekhyun prays he isn’t imagining his TA’s reactions in his head.

Silence follows but Baekhyun can see Yixing’s silhouette propping itself on top of the sink. It’s comforting knowing that Yixing is still here with him and he doesn’t have to suffer through this alone. Baekhyun’s sure his friends or roommates would have been nice company, but he’s also sure they would have told jokes to keep him distracted until the weather let up, not pamper him fully like Yixing is kind of doing. When Baekhyun is almost done, just having to rinse the soap from his body, Yixing speaks again.

“Where were you going before I found you?” Yixing asks.

“I was heading to Telly’s to meet Jongdae and Chanyeol,” Baekhyun answers. Now that he mentions his friends, he realizes he should call them to let them know he’s alright, if his phone didn’t get completely soaked by the rain. He hopes his pant pocket was enough protection. “We were going to celebrate Chanyeol finally getting somewhere with this guy he really likes.”

“I don’t think the rain is going to let up anytime soon so it’s best if we stay put instead of me risking driving there.”

“You don’t mind if I stay here?” Baekhyun asks, faint shock in his voice. He wouldn’t even dream of leaving now that he’s here.

“Weather’s too bad. Can’t let my student get caught in the rain.”

 _Student._ Baekhyun groans internally at the word. “Thanks,” Baekhyun says and shuts the water off. He almost steps out of the shower until he remembers he needs to take things slowly no matter how much he wants Yixing. Baekhyun poke his head out and says, “I need something to dry off with.”

Yixing grabs a large towel that sits atop of some clothes and walks over to Baekhyun. “Here you go. I’ll go wait outside until you’re dressed,” he says as he hands over the towel. Baekhyun can’t help but stare at Yixing’s back until it’s no longer in sight.

Baekhyun then steps out of the shower to dry and dress himself. Once done, he takes a few seconds to see how Yixing’s clothes fit on his body—loose and comfortable—but takes even longer to imagine what it would be like to be stripped out of them. Would the t-shirt go first? Or would Yixing remove his sweats to start. He doesn’t know, but hopes he’ll soon find out.

Baekhyun reaches for his discarded pants for his phone and pulls it out. He tries a few times to get the screen to turn on, but as luck would have it, it doesn’t work. He’ll just ask Yixing can he use his. He tosses his phone onto his pile of wet clothes and leaves the bathroom to see Yixing is nowhere within eyeshot. He doesn’t hear footsteps or noise that would sound like Yixing rummaging around. The only sounds he does hear are the wind knocking and scraping against the house and the rain pouring down. It’s too creepy and Baekhyun’s heart beats a little faster. _It’s just the wind. Yixing is close,_ he tells himself.

“Yixing,” Baekhyun calls quietly when said man doesn’t show up after a minute goes by. He doesn’t get a response and tries to reason with himself that he shouldn’t be afraid and this just isn’t some weird, random person’s house. It’s Yixing’s and he shouldn’t be trembling from fear. Yet he still yells, “Yixing!”

“I’m coming!” he hears Yixing shout back from somewhere close. Relief instantly washes over him, but then Baekhyun frowns, wondering why he had to leave him alone in the first place. He doesn’t get the chance to think of any reasons when he sees Yixing coming down the hallway. “Sorry,” Yixing says when he approaches Baekhyun.

“It’s okay. Just don’t leave me again,” Baekhyun says with a pout, making Yixing chuckle. “Where’d you go?”

Yixing doesn’t answer his question and instead holds the tips of Baekhyun’s bangs between his fingertips. “Your hair is still wet,” Yixing notes as he lightly touches another section of Baekhyun’s hair. Baekhyun tries not blush. “Where’d you leave the towel?”

“On the sink,” Baekhyun answers. Yixing nods and moves around Baekhyun to get into the bathroom. It takes only a few seconds for Yixing to return and start toweling Baekhyun’s hair dry. “Why?” Baekhyun whispers.

“Because you’ll get sick if I don’t,” Yixing states like being _this kind_ to a student is completely normal. “I tried to get dinner started, but you got dressed a lot faster than I thought.”

“You’re going to make me dinner?” Baekhyun asks and if he didn’t have a crush on Yixing already, he’s sure he’d instantly develop one now.

“I told you I have to look out for my students. I can’t let you sleep on an empty stomach.” Yixing tosses the towel onto the floor. “C’mon,” Yixing says as he grabs Baekhyun’s hand and drags him to the kitchen.

Baekhyun takes a seat at the kitchen table and watches as Yixing shuffles around, presumably to make dinner.

“Hey, can I use your phone to call Jongdae?” Baekhyun asks. “Mine’s broke. I think. From the rain”

“I would, but mine’s no good either,” Yixing says as he pulls vegetables and some kind of meat from the fridge. “I tried calling Minseok, but I think the weather’s affecting the signal. Once the rain lets up you can. It should be good to go then.” Baekhyun groans, but accepts that he can’t get in contact with his friends for now. _They’ll be fine._ Baekhyun folds his arms on the table and uses them as a pillow for his head. He closes his eyes and just a few seconds go by when he hears something being dropped onto the table in front of him. He cracks one eye open. “Here, cut these up,” Yixing instructs without giving Baekhyun much of a choice when he walks away without a word back to the stove.

He picks up an orange bell pepper and then the knife, not having the slightest idea of what to do. He really should have paid more attention to Chanyeol when he cooked. Baekhyun twirls the knife in his hand and considers telling Yixing he’s useless in the kitchen, but decides against it; he needs to be of some help even if it’s minimal. Baekhyun figures he should start with the stem first and gets ready to dig the knife into the pepper when he hears a snicker from Yixing.

“What’s so funny?” Baekhyun asks.

“You don’t know how to cut that, do you?” Yixing questions back, still amused. Baekhyun shakes his head. “I’ll show you.” Yixing takes the pepper and knife from Baekhyun’s hands and sets the pepper on its side on the cutting board. Baekhyun watches diligently as Yixing chops off the top and bottom then turns it onto its side to cut open. He then flattens out the pepper to carve out all the seeds. Once that’s done, he wipes the knife with a nearby cloth and cuts it in half then begins to cut it into thin slices. “That’s it. Think you got it?”

“Um, yeah,” Baekhyun drags out, making Yixing laugh again. “Seems complicated.”

“Well, you could also flip it over so it’s bottom side up and slice down to cut around the seeds. But I think this way you’ll be less likely to cut yourself. Don’t worry and just take your time.”

Baekhyun nods and gets to work. Though Yixing said he didn’t have to rush, he’s sure Yixing didn’t mean take more than a few minutes to finish up a pepper that was started for him. By the time he’s half-way done with cutting the seeds from a red bell pepper, Yixing comes to sit right across from him.

“Is something wrong?” Baekhyun asks as he continues to carve the seeds out. “You need these now?”

“No, you’re just entertaining to watch,” Yixing says and Baekhyun would be angry at someone finding enjoyment in his failed cooking skills, but this someone happens to be Yixing and Yixing’s smile has him wanting to melt onto the floor.

“Ah,” is all Baekhyun can manage to say. “But shouldn’t you be watching the other stuff?”

“Water needs to boil, chicken still has about seven more minutes to grill, and the cream sauce I bought from the store,” Yixing explains in one breathe. “So really, take your time.”

“Would you do this for your other students?” He wonders if Yixing would be this caring towards his classmates or is he an exception. He hopes for the latter.

“I would think so, but you kind of make people want to take care of you.” Yixing pauses to lean back in his chair and folds his arms across his chest. “So maybe it’s because you’re you?”

“I see.” Baekhyun has to fight the urge to grin and attempts to focus on finish slicing the pepper.

By the time Baekhyun is done, Yixing has already taken the chicken off the electric grill and thrown noodles into the pot. Yixing warms the cream sauce in a pan and mixes the peppers in after a few minutes to soften them a bit.

“Do you think you can handle slicing the chicken for me while I drain the water from the noodles?” Yixing asks.

“I’m sure I can,” Baekhyun replies and goes over to the counter to start chopping the chicken.

“Make sure none of it slips to the floor,” Yixing teases.

“Hey! That never happened.” Baekhyun pouts, wanting to forget that a few slices of peppers found their way to the floor once he started cutting a little faster.

“If you say so,” he laughs turns to look at Baekhyun for a quick second.

“What?”

“Nothing. You’re cute.”

Baekhyun feels his cheeks flush and just wow. Yixing called him cute and he thinks he could die happy now. Baekhyun gives his attention back to cutting up the chicken in a far better mood than before. It’s nice and it feels a little domestic as they work together to put the pasta together. It has Baekhyun’s imagination going wild with thoughts of what it would like have Yixing as a boyfriend and having dinner dates like this at either of their places. As Baekhyun sets the pasta filled plates onto the table, Yixing grabs two mugs from the cupboard and pours strawberry juice into them.

Dinner is far from silent as Yixing rants about the professors he has to be surrounded by and work with, this time Baekhyun giving Yixing his full attention. And Baekhyun complains about coursework and wanting a break despite only having a year and a half left before he has a degree. Yixing suggests he take a break after he graduates and focus on volunteering or getting an internship before busying himself with med school because it’s what he did before he started his graduate program. Even after dinner is over, their conversation carries into doing the dishes together—Yixing washing while Baekhyun dries—this time less focused on studies and more about random stories about friends. Baekhyun finds him laughing and learning and being even more charmed by Yixing. He almost wishes the rain wouldn’t stop just so he can continue to be around Yixing.

When the last dish is put away, Yixing leads Baekhyun to the living room. They sit on the couch with each at separate ends and Yixing tries to find something to watch on the TV, but nothing works.

“What do we do?” Baekhyun asks when Yixing finally gives up on searching for a working channel.

“Talk more?” Yixing suggests. “You’re pretty funny. I’m kind of shocked that you don’t say more in class.”

“I’d say something embarrassing if I did so I keep it to a minimum,” Baekhyun mistakenly admits.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

Baekhyun knows Yixing is curious, but now is not the perfect time to confess he has a crush on his TA. “It’s nothing, really. Afraid I’ll just put my foot in my mouth and have to hide in shame for the rest of the semester.” He then gets up from the couch to go stare out the front window to see if the rain has died down any, if his time with Yixing will come to an end soon. Nothing has changed from the looks of it; if anything, the rain has picked up and he thinks the tree across the street is leaning heavily towards the ground. The sky looking impossibly darker doesn't help.

“Are you okay?” Yixing asks when he comes to stand next to Baekhyun and squeezes Baekhyun’s hand gently with his own. “You’re shaking. I could notice it from the couch.”

“Oh. It’s just—” Baekhyun stops speaking to gather his thoughts on why he’s scared. Then he says, “It’s my first hurricane here.” Yixing lips part with a small _ah_ leaving them. “But more than that, the weather’s been weird. Even for this town. Jongdae says it’s normal and not to worry, but I can’t help it. And I think the hurricane came a lot sooner than it was supposed to and something’s just not right.”

“It’s okay to be scared and those are real fears,” Yixing starts with, “but Jongdae is right. The weather here has always been strange. It could be cold one day and hot the next.”

“I’m still worried,” he says despite Yixing trying to reassure him he doesn’t have to be.

“What do your friends usually do? When you’re scared, I mean.”

“Jongin or Kyungsoo cuddle with me until it passes. They grew up here too.” Baekhyun goes to sit on the couch, knowing he’s not leaving anytime soon. “I think it’d be a little better if I knew they were alright.”

Yixing joins him on the couch and sits sideways before saying, “Baekhyun, come here,” as he pats the space between his legs. Baekhyun’s mouth drops open in disbelief. Yixing must be joking or he must be dreaming. “It’s too weird?” Yixing tries to laugh off. “I’m sorry. I’ll—”

“No!” Baekhyun hurriedly interrupts with. He can’t just rush over into Yixing’s lap like some over eager dog. “I’m just shocked.” He then crawls as calmly as possible over to sit right between Yixing’s legs. “It’s fine. It’s fine,” he scrambles to say as he makes himself comfortable with his back pressed against Yixing.

Yixing chuckles, “You sure?” even though his arms are already wrapping around Baekhyun’s middle.

“Positive.” If this were any other time Baekhyun’s sure he wouldn’t mind sitting here in silence as the rain softly dropped down, but this is unusual weather and he needs noise to distract himself from listening to whatever’s going on outside. “Hey, Yixing. Can you talk about anything? Like earlier? You never finished that story about getting wasted.”

“Ah, I didn’t. Where’d I leave off?”

“Your friend was driving down a dirt road, I think.”

“Oh yeah!” Yixing exclaims and excitedly gets back into his story. “So Minseok was driving down this dirt road and, I mentioned having a very weak alcohol tolerance right?” Baekhyun hums and grabs onto Yixing’s fingers to start playing with them. “Yeah, so my tolerance is shit, but I feel like I’m king of the world and can do anything. Minseok’s driving and all of a sudden I think it’s a great idea to jump out of the car.”

“So you’re a stupid drunk?” he teases.

“Hm, that’s not important,” Yixing brushes off lightly, making Baekhyun giggle. “So I tell this to Minseok and he slows down the car, telling me to stop saying dumb things. But of course me being drunk is me thinking he thinks I can’t do it. So I try to climb out the window.” Yixing pauses for few seconds then continues, “He tries to stop me, of course, and rips my shirt in the process.”

“And you fell out the window?”

“Nope. In fact, he pulled me back in, but still ripped my shirt. And I get upset and start babbling about how Minseok doesn't love me because if he did then he’d let me make my own choices. I think I started crying or at least teared up.”

“I bet you were full on sobbing.”

“Maybe. But then I get the bright idea to just open the door and jump out.”

“You didn’t,” Baekhyun says skeptically, not fully being able to believe Yixing, his wonderful and smart TA, would do something so dangerous.

“Um, well, it was more like I tumbled out. Same difference.”

_“Yixing.”_

“What? I’m still here. Minseok did take me to the hospital to make sure my head was okay though. Doctor said I was lucky he drove so slow.”

“Don’t be stupid like that again.”

“Promise I won’t. It’s been three years since that happened and I’ve made sure to get tipsy at best.”

“Good.”

“Should I tell another drunken tale? This happened before the jumping out the car thing.”

Baekhyun laughs. “No, I think I’m good now, but it’s nice to sit here with you.”

Yixing takes one of his hands from Baekhyun’s own to ruffle the other’s hair. “Good. You’re shaking a lot less.” He gives his hand back to Baekhyun to play with.

Baekhyun hums, thinking now would be the perfect opportunity to make his move. “But why are you so nice Yixing?” He tilts his head back to lay it on Yixing’s shoulder. “Hm?”

“I think anyone would help you. It’s the right thing to do. And you're my student.”

Baekhyun bites down on his lip in order not to huff at that word. But maybe it’s for the best because he notices Yixing staring down at his lips. Baekhyun makes sure to lick them. He then turns his body and slumps down so he can rest his head on Yixing’s chest. Yixing adjusts himself, and naturally Baekhyun moves as well, so they’re lying down. Yixing circles his arms around Baekhyun as best as possible. “But Yixing, what kind of TA would do as much as you have?”

“I—”

“You picked me up out of the rain. Let me shower and gave me fresh clothes. We made dinner, _together._ And now you’re sitting here cuddling with me because I’m scared.” Baekhyun starts to run his fingers lightly up and down Yixing’s chest. “What would someone in my position think?”

“Do you think I’m trying to take advantage of you?”

“Not at all,” Baekhyun says right before he tilts his head up to place a kiss right at the base of Yixing’s neck.

 _“Baekhyun,”_ Yixing warns and Baekhyun looks up to smile at him innocently. “You’re my student.”

Baekhyun lets out a tiny chuckle. “So? Are we really student and teacher right now? It doesn’t feel like it,” he says before dragging his fingers lower until his hand hovers right above Yixing’s crotch. “You should let me thank you.”

Yixing takes a deep breath before saying, “I didn’t do any of this for some sort of special thanks.”

“I know,” Baekhyun smirks and presses his palm and _oh._ He definitely likes what he feels and they’ve barely started.

“We shouldn’t,” he grits between his teeth when Baekhyun slowly starts to rub his hand over Yixing’s dick.

“We shouldn’t or can’t?” Baekhyun asks as he shifts up to start placing lazy kisses along Yixing’s neck. “You call me daydreamer a lot in class. You know why I space out?” Baekhyun stops his kisses and he swears he hears a low whine but ignores it in favor of whispering in Yixing’s ear, “Because. Of. You,” and then lays his head on Yixing’s chest once more to focus solely on Yixing’s dick. “I think of what it would be like holding hands with you. Kissing you. Touching you.” He pauses to look up and meet Yixing’s gaze as he says, “Fucking you.”

Yixing groans, “We could get into trouble for this Baekhyun.”

“Or we could keep quiet about it. I would if it meant I could keep coming back.” Yixing doesn’t stop his hand from moving; the only thing Yixing does is hold back the moans Baekhyun knows he wants to let out. _“Please,”_ he begs. “Just forget that I’m your student.” Yixing still chooses to say nothing so Baekhyun removes his hand from Yixing’s dick and sits up. “I actually _want you_ Yixing. Whether you’re my TA or not.”

“I—fuck Baekhyun. Come here,” Yixing begs.

“So you want me?” Baekhyun asks with a smirk and a raise of his brow.

 _“God yes._ Now _come here,”_ Yixing outright commands as he moves to rest his weight against the armrest. Baekhyun eagerly straddles Yixing’s waist. Yixing gropes Baekhyun’s thighs before sliding them up so he can hold tight onto his hips. Baekhyun clutches onto Yixing’s shoulders before rolling his hips down, loving how the other’s lips gradually part before he’s letting out a low moan. _“Baekhyun,”_ Yixing sighs.

“Hmm?”

“I want—”

“Want what Yixing?”

“To kiss you.”

Baekhyun smiles as he leans in, thinking _finally_ just as their lips are about to meet. But before their lips can even brush, Baekhyun’s vision goes completely black and he realizes the power has gone out. His first reaction is to quickly grab hold of Yixing and hold tight, no longer in the mood for anything other than Yixing making him feel safe.

“The power went out,” Yixing huffs and sits up with Baekhyun still clutching his back. “I sh—there’s a flashlight in the kitchen drawer. Let’s go.”

Baekhyun lifts himself off of Yixing’s lap and stands, waiting to hear Yixing to do the same. He _feels_ Yixing grab his hand before he stands and then leads them to the kitchen. There’s a few seconds of Yixing searching through a draw with his free hand and a small _yes_ until there’s small circle of light in front of them.

“What do we do now?” Baekhyun asks.

“Don’t know. We could go to Minseok’s place since he lives on the other side of town,” Yixing suggests. “Maybe the power there is still on.”

“What about the rain and wind? It’s still not safe to drive.”

“Let’s go look just in case.” Yixing guides them to the front door, opening it for the both to see that the weather has changed. It’s gotten worse. The rain has become heavier, transitioning from pouring to _pounding_. Baekhyun’s heart drops into his stomach. They’ll be soaked before they even make it to Yixing’s car. Through the hazy rain, he can barely make out its outline. “We need to go. The house is going to start flooding soon,” Yixing says and shuts the door.

“Are you sure?” Baekhyun questions. He’d rather not risk changing locations over a bit of water. “Has this happened before?”

“Once and it wasn’t raining _this hard._ If the streets are starting to flood then the house will too. Let me get my keys from my room and we can go.”

Baekhyun can only nod as Yixing pulls him in the direction of his room, head still spinning over having to leave when it isn’t safe to drive. He almost wishes something would have made him leave his house later than he did; then he could have turned around to go back into this two-story house that doesn’t flood, not this single story he’s currently in. Then he wouldn’t be worried about his and Yixing’s lives. He’d be wrapped up in his blankets, hugged by either Kyungsoo or Jongin until everything passed. The only negative would have been not being able to get close with Yixing. They enter Yixing’s room and he quickly finds his car keys. Yixing makes the move to exit, but Baekhyun holds him back.

“We should pack some things,” Baekhyun says, a little shocked at himself he’s thinking further ahead even with fear vibrating throughout his entire body. “We don’t know how long it’s going to be.”

“Like what?” Yixing asks.

“Um, blankets? In case Minseok doesn’t have enough. And toothbrushes?” Baekhyun answers and stops there. He can’t think of anything else that’d be useful when they have to go as soon as possible.

“Okay.”

“Do you have a leather bag? So the blankets won’t get soaked through the bag.”

“Um, this old one my grandfather gave me.” Yixing unhooks his hand from Baekhyun’s and sets the flashlight down on a nightstand. He then reaches underneath his bed to pull out a large leather backpack. “This should be good enough.”

They then work together to stuff one large fleece blanket and two slightly smaller ones into the bag. After, Yixing goes into one of his dresser drawers to get two unopened toothbrush packs and places them in the front pocket of the bag.

“Yixing, I’ll probably get cold so can I take a hoodie of yours?”

“Sure,” Yixing says and reaches into his closet for said item. He throws one at Baekhyun and then puts one on himself. “Is that it?”

“Another hoodie?” Baekhyun laughs, but Yixing tosses another one into his hands. Baekhyun puts both over himself and then grabs the leather bag to wear on his front. He then takes hold of Yixing’s hand. “Ready?”

Yixing’s answer is to take the flashlight and lead them out of the house. After Yixing unlocks the car doors, they both make a dash for it and get in as fast as possible. Baekhyun’s shoes haven’t recovered from earlier and he thinks they’re even more drenched than before, if possible. He should have asked Yixing if any of his extra pairs would have fit. They remain silent as Yixing focuses on the road and trying to get them to Minseok’s place, but it’s hard when the roads are flooding and Yixing has to drive around piles of branches and other debris. They make it to downtown when Yixing stops his car. Baekhyun swallows hard, not liking what he’s able to see.

“The water’s too much here,” Yixing says. He’s right and Baekhyun wishes he wasn’t. The water is too high and Baekhyun groans frustratedly. “I don’t think I can drive through.”

“What do we do?” Baekhyun asks. “We can’t go back. Do you know any other friends that live nearby?”

“No,” Yixing sighs. “Most live just outside the city and the only other one I can think of it out of town doing research.”

Baekhyun looks around and everything is dark meaning closed. And even if they were open, they’d be starting to flood by now. He glances around some more when he sees light coming from what he assumes is a tall building not too far off to their left.

“How close do you think you can get to that building with the light?” Baekhyun asks and points in the direction of the building. If Baekhyun could see a little better, he’s sure he’d see Yixing squinting to make out the building as well.

“Not close enough,” Yixing groans, “but I’ll try.” Yixing carefully drives through the flooded street and not even a minute passes when he stops again. “We have to walk. Hopefully it’s unlocked or we’re screwed.”

“It will be,” Baekhyun states loud enough for Yixing to hear. “It will be,” he repeats to convince himself, a little quieter this time.

Yixing turns around to reach for something in the backseat and hands whatever it is to Baekhyun. “Think you can fit my notebook in there?”

“I’ll try,” Baekhyun says as he takes the notebook from Yixing’s hand. Trying works and he fits the notebook inside the bag in between a blanket.

Yixing then open his car door and carefully steps out and holds onto the door for support as he waits for Baekhyun to join him. Baekhyun quickly takes the bag off himself and sets it in the driver’s seat so he can climb over. He then puts the bag back on and takes Yixing’s hand to help step out of the car. Baekhyun wants to scream at how cold the water seems already. Being knee deep intensifies the feeling, but he holds it in to focus on getting somewhere safe and dry. Their grip on each other’s hand is strong as they wade through the water towards the light. Crossing the street is the hardest part—the wind threatens to knock them over completely and the rain makes it hard to see, but by luck, they find their way to the other side. Yixing then makes Baekhyun hold onto him by wrapping his arms around his waist so he’s free to use his hands to cling to the building walls as leverage. Baekhyun mentally thanks whatever person decided to build all these stores and offices so close.

Minutes and minutes go by before they’re able to reach the building with the light. And thankfully when they do, the doors aren’t locked. It’s a bit of a struggle to push it open thanks to the water on both the inside and out, but they manage to get through and into the building. Baekhyun scans his surroundings, glad that the inside is at least dimly lit enough to see where they’re going.

“We should go find where that light came from,” Yixing says as he gently removes Baekhyun’s hands from around him to link their hands together instead. He begins guiding them to the emergency stairway.

“It had to be the third or fourth floor,” Baekhyun says as they walk up the stairs with caution.

Now that they’re in a semi-warm building and out of water, Baekhyun notices how their clothes stick to their skin and the gross feeling that comes along with it. Chills are sent throughout his entire body and he prays there’s still a working heat source by the time they find who’s left in the building. Once they reach the third floor, Baekhyun thinks he sees light coming from a room down the hall.

“I think this is it,” Baekhyun whispers and points over to where a doorway is emitting light. They walk carefully down the hall, their shoes squeaking with every step. It kind of defeats the purpose, but they still walk slowly until they’re approaching the doorway.

Yixing peeks his head in and gives a loud, “Hello.” Baekhyun then hears a _Who are you_ as Yixing pulls him into the doorway. Baekhyun takes a quick glance around the room to see nothing but cubicles filling most of the room. _Some type office,_ he figures. “I’m Yixing and this is Baekhyun,” he introduces. We got caught up in the rain and saw the light coming from the window and tried our luck here.” Baekhyun gives a small wave.

“Ah, you guys are pretty lucky then,” a guy a little shorter than Baekhyun himself and maybe slightly older than Yixing says. “We had a project due and were working on it. We would’ve gone home by now if it weren’t for the weather. I’m Junmyeon by the way. These are my seniors Heejun, Jaeyoon, and Minkyu.” Junmyeon says as he gestures towards the three men who look to be in their fifties, maybe older. Baekhyun and Yixing both wave, but the men don’t pay them any sort of attention and busy themselves with paperwork. “Seulgi went to the bathroom. She’s an intern like myself.”

“Seulgi? I wonder if—” Yixing says but is cut off by a woman’s voice.

“Yixing? What are you doing here? And all soaked,” Seulgi says as she enters the room.

“Baekhyun and I got caught up in the rain and needed somewhere to go,” Yixing answers. “How is the power still on? The lights are out everywhere.”

“There’s an emergency generator. Let’s try and get you both dry before you get sick,” Seulgi says as she takes a hand from both Yixing and Baekhyun and guides them to the bathroom. “It isn’t much, but use the air dryers to try and dry your clothes.”

They both give their thanks and step inside the bathroom.

“How do you know Seulgi?” Baekhyun asks as he removes his shoes and sets the backpack on the ground.

“She’s a student of mine. Same class as you, but different block,” Yixing explains. “Are we really stripping in front of each other?” he asks as Baekhyun lifts and peels the first hoodie off of himself.

“We don’t have a choice,” Baekhyun says and then adds, “I’m sure we were on our way to fucking earlier so me seeing you naked shouldn’t be a surprise now.”

“Right.” Yixing starts to remove his clothes as well. Despite the circumstances not being the best, Baekhyun can’t help but smile when he sees Yixing blush and turn away. Maybe he’ll get another chance when all of this is over.

They keep their underwear on and wring out their clothes over the sink as best as possible before moving to the air dryers. Baekhyun’s halfway through drying his pants when there’s a knock on the door and Junmyeon walks in.

“Seulgi wanted me to give you these,” Junmyeon says as he raises two pairs of those cheap, black sandals. “She searched around the office and found them. Said it was better than attempting to dry wet shoes.”

“Thanks,” Yixing says as he takes both pairs and drops them to the ground. He steps into one as Baekhyun puts on the other pair. Both are too big for either of their feet, but it’s better than nothing. Junmyeon makes his exit.

Baekhyun’s feet start to hurt when his pants are dry enough to put on.

“I give up,” Baekhyun whines. “This is going to take forever.”

“But we have to. Who knows how long that generator will hold out,” Yixing says. “Let’s take a break.”

They open the door to find Junmyeon blocking the doorway, hand raised in a fist.

Junmyeon puts his hand down and says, “I thought of an idea. Grab your clothes and follow me.” They do as told and Junmyeon leads them into an empty room with a few tables and no windows. “Each room’s temperature is controlled separately. So if I wanted one room to be moderate while another is boiling, I could do that. Lay your clothes out on the table and I’ll set the temperature high.” Baekhyun takes off his underwear and puts his pants back on. He leaves the boxer briefs on a chair to dry along with his shoes on another and sets the rest of his clothing on top of the table. When he’s done, Yixing does the same. They shut the door and leave the room and head back to where the rest of the workers are. “We’re back,” Junmyeon announces.

None of them speak, faces grim.

“Seulgi, what happened?” Yixing asks, voice filled with concern.

She looks up and laughs pitifully. Baekhyun’s heart drops and he wonders what in hell could have happened to turn her cheerful mood into something so bleak all of a sudden.

“Minkyu, say something,” Junmyeon near pleads.

“Before you two got here, our phones stopped working. Seulgi went and got the radio from another office so we could at least listen to the weather,” Minkyu starts to explain. Baekhyun laces his fingers together with Yixing’s and holds his breath. “It’s happening everywhere. _Everywhere_ they said.”

“What’s happening everywhere?”

“The hurricanes. The tornadoes. The volcanoes. You name it and it’s there. They said temperature’s supposed to drop too so don’t leave wherever you are.”

“Like we have a choice,” Heejun spits out. “What are we going to do until we can leave?”

“Not work, that’s for sure,” Jaeyoon says as he straightens a pile of papers and shuts his computer down. “I’ll be sleeping. Seulgi get the light.”

“We have blankets,” Yixing mentions as Seulgi heads goes toward the light switch. “I mean, there’s only three so we have to share, but hopefully the hurricane passes and we can get out of here soon.”

“You’re too hopeful,” Seulgi comments as she passes Yixing and hits the light off. “We’re going to be here for a while if the entire world is dealing with this.” Seulgi uses the flashlight on her phone to guide her to what Baekhyun assumes is her desk and plops down into her seat to turn on a desk light. “A blanket would be nice. I’ll share with Junmyeon when the time comes for it.”

“I left the bag in the bathroom,” Baekhyun whispers to Yixing.

“I’ll go back and get it,” Yixing whispers back. “Stay here.” Baekhyun is about to protest when Yixing gently cups his face with both hands to place a kiss on top of his head. “Don’t worry.”

Baekhyun lets Yixing leave without a word. He doesn’t like that the only person he knows is leaving him in the hands of strangers, even if for two minutes at best. Junmyeon and Seulgi seem nice, but his gut is telling him not to trust the other three. Even with his suspicions, the kiss was enough to placate and distract him for now, making his mind wander off and fill with thoughts of what it’d be like to really kiss Yixing. Baekhyun curses at himself for not doing so earlier.

It takes hardly any time at all for Yixing to return, bag in hand. Baekhyun all but rushes to Yixing’s side and he thinks he hears Seulgi and Junmyeon laugh, but ignores it to make sure he gets the largest blanket. He’ll switch with Seulgi once their clothes dry, he notes, as he hands over the second largest to her instead.

“Ready to sleep?” Yixing asks as he sits down in a chair a few off from Seulgi’s and across from Junmyeon’s.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun yawns, mind suddenly welcoming the idea of sleep. He sets himself sideways in Yixing’s lap, much to the other’s surprise. “Should I move?”

“Are you scared?” Yixing questions back.

 _No._ But Yixing is the only sort of comfort he has right now and is afraid of losing him. And Baekhyun needs to show him he doesn’t want what happened back at his place to be a one off thing. Baekhyun could take the kiss Yixing gave not even ten minutes ago as reassurance that Yixing could want him still too. But it could have also been just to comfort him for the time being.

“Who wouldn’t be scared aside from you? The chair is big enough for two,” Baekhyun mumbles as he settles himself against Yixing and throws the blanket carelessly over them. “If you want me to move that’s fine, but just not tonight. Please.”

Yixing doesn’t say anything, at least not with words. Yixing straightens the blanket out so it can cover them properly. He then loops his arms around Baekhyun to hold him more securely and gives a quiet _goodnight._ Baekhyun sleeps soundly with a tiny grin on his face the entire night.

 

 

 

There’s a crick in his neck as Baekhyun sits up, eyes slowly opening. He gets up, placing the blanket back over a sleeping Yixing, before stretching his arms above his head. He looks around the room to see everyone sleeping minus Junmyeon who’s nowhere in sight. It’s a bit chilly, he notices, as he walks toward the window to see if anything’s changed.

Baekhyun sighs in relief at the sight in front of him. The clouds are now a dark gray and it’s only drizzling compared to harsh pouring rain from yesterday. But the wind seems like it would still knock him at least a good twenty feet if going by the streetlights alone and the flood waters have obviously risen. There’s still an eerie feeling about the whole thing, but Baekhyun puts it in the back of his mind to focus on getting through the day. Baekhyun grabs one of the spare toothbrushes Yixing packed and searches around in desk drawers until he finds toothpaste and decides he’ll get dressed first.

As he enters the hallway, it feels slightly colder than the room he was just in. Baekhyun brushes it off. _It’s because it’s morning,_ he tells himself as he makes his way to the room he left his clothes in. They’re dry for the most part, a few damp spots here and there, and he puts his t-shirt and one of the hoodies on. He slips on his socks and feels his shoes and they’re more wet than he’d like. He leaves them be to go wash up in the restroom.

When he leaves the restroom, Baekhyun is nearly knocked over by a frantic Junmyeon.

“What’s the matter?” Baekhyun asks as he helps Junmyeon keep his balance. “Is everything okay?”

“No,” Junmyeon groans, clearly frustrated. “I think the generator went out and if that radio broadcast was right it’s going to start getting colder.”

This was not the news Baekhyun expected or needed. He takes a deep breath to calm his nerves and asks, “Are you sure? About the generator.”

“About ninety-five percent. I tried using the microwave to make coffee and it didn’t work. I tried the thermostats and those didn’t work either. Plus the lights in the halls are all off. Seulgi went to sleep with the desk light on and even that was off,” he rambles.

“Then what do we do?”

“Don’t know. Guess we’ll need to share those blankets a lot sooner though,” he laughs and they head back to the group room. Baekhyun frowns at the thought of having to share with anyone other than Yixing. “Don’t worry. I won’t get in between you and Yixing.”

“Is my crush that obvious?”

“Crush? He’s not your boyfriend?”

“Not yet. But maybe soon?”

“Goodluck,” Junmyeon says as they enter the room.

“Thanks,” Baekhyun replies. He takes a seat next to Junmyeon seeing that Yixing isn’t up yet. “So, what should we do about food for the time being?”

“There’s a bunch of packs of ramyeon in the breakroom we can live off of. Though I don’t know how long it’ll last with seven people. If we portioned it right, we could be good for two weeks. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. There’s also the vending machines. They’re separate ones for snacks and water.”

“How would we even cook it though? We need a fire.”

“I think I remember my boss saying something about the trashcans being fire proof. There’s this metal rack we can set above it and put the pot on it.”

“Should we fix some now?”

“There’s only enough for two weeks if we eat once a day.”

“Oh,” Baekhyun says, not looking forward to his stomach growling endlessly. “Want to break into the vending machines then?” he suggests. “At least the ones with water.”

“I have a company card so that won’t be necessary.”

“Don’t they need to be plugged in to work?”

“No. They run on their own.”

Baekhyun pouts and slumps in his chair at the information. It would have given him something to do instead of wondering when, _if_ someone will come to rescue them. Baekhyun must be entertaining because Junmyeon starts to laugh.

“You’re kind of cute,” Junmyeon stumbles out through his laughter.

“Only kind of cute?” Baekhyun asks, voice light and playful.

“What’s only kind of cute?” Yixing asks weakly, surprising Baekhyun. He must have just woken up.

“Me,” Baekhyun says as he spins in his chair to face Yixing. “He thinks I’m just _kind of cute._ Not one-hundred percent cute.”

Yixing hums and gets up, blanket falling to the floor. He picks it up and places it in the chair before going to his bag and digging around for the toothbrush. Once found, he starts to leave, but Baekhyun’s shouting stops him.

“I left the toothpaste in the restroom!” Baekhyun yells. Yixing waves his hand sloppily in the air in what Baekhyun thinks is thanks.

“Don’t sulk,” Junmyeon says. “Maybe he’s not a morning person.

“Yeah. Maybe so.”

Turns out, Yixing really isn’t a morning person and informs Baekhyun specifically on this when he returns. They spend the rest of their time waiting for everyone else to get up and ready as best as possible for the day ahead. Seulgi wakes next followed by Minkyu, Jaeyoon, and Heejun. Junmyeon fills everyone in on their power situation and the plan for survival since they don’t know when help will arrive. Of course the three company seniors throw a fit, but are outnumbered when they all vote to stick by Junmyeon’s plan of eating ramyeon once a day before moving on to the vending machine snacks. Baekhyun pretends he doesn’t hear Minkyu ask Jaeyoon why he has to share with two outsiders.

They spend the rest of morning and part of the afternoon chatting about moments in their personal lives that have happened recently. Baekhyun doesn’t pay attention to most of it, only when Seulgi and Junmyeon are the ones to speak, which isn’t often. Yixing doesn’t add anything at all to the conversation, choosing to lie on the floor and write in his notebook instead. Baekhyun uses Yixing’s back as a pillow the entire time.

Late in the day, they begin to cook five packs of ramyeon together, overseen by Junmyeon and Yixing. They make the fire mostly from paper and a few office supplies that are small enough to fit in the can such as tape, rulers, and even a few books. They gather around on the floor and sit in a circle, waiting for the food to be done.

“Has anyone checked the radio for any new news yet?” Junmyeon asks as he lifts some of the ramyeon up to check it. “Looks about done. Let’s eat.” Yixing and Junmyeon help give out everyone’s fair share of food by distributing them evenly among seven plastic bowls.

“No,” Seulgi says and hops off the floor to bring the radio closer. She sits back down next to Junmyeon and turns it up. They eat and create small talk until Seulgi finds another working station.

 

_—bringing the total number of deaths to an unprecedented amount. I repeat, over a quarter of the world’s population has been reported as either missing or deceased with the numbers expecting to rise close to half over the next few weeks._

_Communications are still severely limited and weather conditions are making it difficult to get to survivors. We are asking for people to stay indoors where the temperature is expected to make a drastic drop within the next few days. For those who—_

 

Baekhyun sees Jaeyoon reach over and turn off the radio himself. Baekhyun doesn’t know whether to be thankful he doesn’t have to hear the rest or upset he doesn’t know what else that reporter was going to say about the rest of the world. The one thing he does know is that a sense of dread is starting to take over him.

Two days.

All it took was _two days_ for the world to turn to complete shit and he’s positive he isn’t even living the worst of it. If he thought being over Yixing’s house was surreal, Baekhyun doesn’t even know how to properly label what they’re experiencing now. And a quarter of _the world’s_ population is gone. Just like that. That could include anyone he knows—family, friends, classmates, neighbors— _anyone_ and he has no way of finding out until they’re rescued. If they don’t die first.

Baekhyun’s so lost in his own thoughts that he doesn’t notice his bowl and fork being taken away from him until he looks down at his hands to find nothing when a few minutes have gone by. He peers up to see Yixing sitting in front of him with two bowls in his possession—one cradled by folded legs and the other in his hand.

Baekhyun watches Yixing swirls the ramyeon around the fork and then holds it up to Baekhyun’s mouth.

“Eat,” Yixing instructs. Baekhyun doesn’t have any appetite any more, but he knows he needs it and listens anyway. Yixing feeds him until there’s nothing left and then works on finishing the rest of his food.

The rest of the group talks amongst themselves. It’s nothing special in particular— _are they even going to find us_ and _are we going to die here_ —just the same topics worded in a different way.

By the time dinner is completely over, the sky is already dark and their fire has gone out. Baekhyun almost offers to restart it, but he knows they’ll need to save the materials for the days ahead if the temperature does drop as low as they say. Everyone decides to sleep early, probably not wanting to deal with too much conversation when they can’t stop thinking about loved ones or if they’ll be the ones to go.

For the second night in a row, Baekhyun falls asleep in Yixing’s arms.

 

 

It takes four more days for a routine to sink in. The days pass by in the same manor: wake up, try to pass time with talking, eat, more talking, attempt to sleep. Baekhyun usually spends his talking time with Junmyeon and Seulgi and Yixing, all of them slowly revealing events of their childhood or if they’re in the mood for it, talking of future dreams that will never happen. If he’s not talking, he’s by Yixing, watching him write into his notebook. The three company seniors keep to themselves unless it’s necessary not to. Even when the other four try to include them in on conversation, they continue to stay isolated.

 

 

 

Baekhyun adds making a fire to their schedule right between talking and sleeping on Day Seven when the night gets colder and the seven of them have to sleep huddled together by two bins of fire to stay warm. Baekhyun gets up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and before he returns to Yixing’s side he takes a peek out the window to see snow falling down.

The next morning he gives Seulgi his extra hoodie.

 

 

 

On Day Nine, Baekhyun and Junmyeon discover the water no longer works and assume the pipes must have frozen over. Junmyeon clears out the water in the vending machine on the second floor. He sets them inside the restrooms and says they should limit themselves to one per day to freshen themselves up. Baekhyun doesn’t like that this makes cleaning themselves even harder. The scratchy paper towel and clinical smelling soap was bad enough.

 

 

 

Day Ten has everyone on edge. Baekhyun thinks all of them are frustrated that they might be spending their last days like this—waiting to die as hope fades. Nothing comes in on the radio anymore unless the static counts. Junmyeon and Seulgi end up and an argument with Jaeyoon that the rest of them have to stop. After, no one speaks to anyone. Even Baekhyun keeps his lips from moving, even if he just wants Yixing to know he’s okay. He thinks the smile he sends Yixing’s way gets the message across.

 

 

 

By Day Fifteen, Baekhyun is thankful. The only plus side to dying a slow, cold death is that at least Yixing, someone familiar, is with him through it all. Baekhyun knows he would have gone mad by now if it weren’t for him. Yixing continues to keep him grounded. Every time he tries to argue with _the snow is still piling up_ or _don’t you see that water out there freezing,_ Yixing refuses to listen and gives Baekhyun a tiny bit of faith by telling him that help will come and that they’ll be alright.

 

 

 

It’s Day Seventeen and Baekhyun sits, staring at the dying fire before him. He doesn’t understand how anyone can sleep when they’re running out of food and the weather continues to grow colder with each passing day. And soon he knows they’ll run out of things to burn to keep them just warm enough from getting sick. But here all but him lay, sleeping as if the world isn’t ending. The only exception is Yixing who shivers in his sleep as his head rests in Baekhyun’s lap. Baekhyun runs his fingers through Yixing’s hair before trying to gently remove his head off his thigh, but Yixing’s eyes easily open.

“Can’t sleep?” Yixing quietly asks as he sits up with a yawn. He then removes the blanket partially from himself to share with Baekhyun.

“Nope,” Baekhyun nearly whispers and doesn’t say anything more. Yixing doesn’t speak either; he only stares at Baekhyun as his teeth continue to chatter. “What’s wrong?” Baekhyun finally asks even though he already knows why.

“Aside from feeling like I’m freezing?” Yixing half-laughs before continuing, “It’s freezing.” Yixing then scoots in close to wrap his arms completely around Baekhyun and rests his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder. “Let’s try to get back to sleep.” Baekhyun watches as Yixing snuggles closer and shuts his eyes.

“It’s going to be kind of hard with your teeth making so much noise,” Baekhyun says as he frees himself from Yixing’s hold only to pull him back in, this time with his own arms wrapped securely around Yixing.

“That annoying, huh?”

“Just a little.” Baekhyun says nothing more, not really knowing what even to say. He knows neither of them will be able to sleep—Yixing because it’s too cold and Baekhyun because of Yixing—and even if he were to give the blanket solely to Yixing, he’s doubtful that it would help in the least. He chews on his bottom lip, wondering how appropriate it would be to suggest anything sexual right now. If the world hadn't gone into complete chaos, they could’ve fucked a few times by now. Yixing has shown interest with the temple and forehead kisses and with the way he holds Baekhyun at night. And it isn’t like they have anything else better to do. Even if it couldn’t provide warmth, it would be a nice distraction to even kiss Yixing right now.

“I know a way I can warm you up,” Baekhyun says after they’ve sat in silence for far too long.

“You do?” Yixing asks as he peers up at Baekhyun.

Baekhyun swallows hard before he says quietly, “We’ll need to be alone.” It takes a few moments, but Baekhyun sees the gears turn and Yixing’s lips slowly part to form a small ‘o’ shape. “Let’s go?” Baekhyun asks as he stands, holding his hand out for Yixing to take. Yixing stares at Baekhyun’s hand for what feels like forever and Baekhyun almost retracts his hand to say forget it, that he was only joking around, but then Yixing slips his hand into Baekhyun’s own.

“I—yeah. Let’s go,” Yixing stutters and then allows himself to be pulled up off the ground by Baekhyun, blanket falling from his shoulders in the process.

Baekhyun reaches down to grab the blanket off the floor and then wraps it securely around Yixing before he motions for him to follow as he leads them as silently as possible out of the room and into the hallway. It feels entirely too cold once Yixing has shut the door behind himself, the air far more bitter than Baekhyun could have imagined. He almost commands for them both to turn around, to head back into the room where there’s some semblance of warmth until he remembers his goal of providing Yixing some sort of relief from the cold, that Yixing willingly followed him out into the hall. Yixing probably needs a distraction as much as he does.

So Baekhyun stays determined and leads them to a glass window for some kind of room. He peers inside and it’s empty. The room is far enough for privacy yet close enough just in case they need help. Yixing opens the door and enters the room first, followed by Baekhyun who locks the door after he’s entered. It’s a lot smaller than the room the group shares, Baekhyun notes as he steps inside. It must have been used for meetings, Baekhyun figures, as he takes in the long wooden table and dozen or so chairs lined under it. The room is barely warmer than the hallway, but it’ll have to do.

“Help me push this against the wall,” Baekhyun says and Yixing nods as he shuffles to move toward the table. He unravels himself from the blanket before placing both his palms onto the table. Baekhyun matches his stance and they both begin to push until the backs of chairs are hitting the wall and the table can move no further. They then quickly move all stray chairs to sit underneath the table once more.

“So, what now?” Yixing asks as he sits on the floor, covering himself in the blanket again.

“I told you, I’d warm you up, remember?” Baekhyun says in response. He goes to the small metal trash can in the corner of the room. It’s filled with nothing. “Should I go out and get some stuff to build a fire?” he asks.

“This room doesn’t have a window to vent the smoke out,” Yixing says and Baekhyun curses at himself for not picking something better. “Just come here?”

Baekhyun clears his throat and then sits himself down in Yixing’s lap, straddling as best as possible with a blanket in the way. He makes sure to keep his hands to himself. “Are you nervous?”

“A little,” Yixing answers with a slight chuckle to his voice. “You are my student, so it still feels like I’m not supposed to be doing this.”

Baekhyun lets out a little laughter of his own, entertained that Yixing still considers him a student, before saying, “I _was_ your student. I’m just regular ol’ Baekhyun now. You were willing to forget that last time anyway.”

“Ah, true.”

Silence fills the air when Baekhyun finds that there’s nothing more he can think of to say. Now that he’s actually here, in Yixing’s lap, he doesn’t even know how to start or where to begin. So Baekhyun takes in how handsome really is, from his eyes to his nose to his lips; everything about Yixing is attractive and somehow through all of this, Yixing wants him. He could have said that the night at his place was a missed opportunity and it wasn’t going to happen again. Yet here they are. He’s so lost in Yixing, he almost forgets why he’s here until there’s a light pinch at his side. And now logic tells him to just kiss Yixing; it’s the reason why they’re here. If Yixing had any intentions of rejecting him, he wouldn’t have followed him all the way to this room and allowed himself to be locked in. Baekhyun gets drowned in his own thoughts again that he nearly misses Yixing’s lips moving and actual words coming out.

“Huh?” Baekhyun says, knowing he missed every single word Yixing said.

“I said,” Yixing pauses, clears his throat, and doesn’t make eye contact when he repeats, “aren’t you going to kiss me?”

 _Oh._ Yixing was and still is waiting for Baekhyun to kiss him. Despite the cold, Baekhyun can feel heat rise into his cheeks and he swallows hard as he nods.

Baekhyun bites down nervously on his bottom lip before he’s cupping the nape of Yixing’s neck with one hand and using the other to rest firmly against his chest. He tilts his head slightly and leans in.

Their noses bump and it’s awkward pressing into tightly closed, chapped lips and it’s stupid because if Yixing didn’t want to kiss him, he could have refused; he shouldn’t have asked if he’d kiss him or not. Hell, he shouldn’t have kissed his forehead to calm him down or held him at night to make sure he felt safe if Yixing wanted their relationship to progress to nowhere. Baekhyun cracks open one of his eyes to see Yixing's own eyes fully open in shock. So Baekhyun stops, lifting himself off of Yixing's lap until he feels strong hands pulling him back down. Baekhyun tries not to think of Yixing’s hands doing other things; he needs them to get through the kissing first.

“It was too sudden. I wasn’t ready,” Yixing says and then smiles sheepishly and scratches the back of his head, causing the blanket to slip off one of his shoulders. His anger subsides and Baekhyun laughs, thinking of how cute Yixing is despite being the one who asked to be kissed.

“Just relax,” Baekhyun says as he takes the blanket to wrap it around the both of them as best as possible. “You’ve taken care of me all this time, so let me do the same.” Yixing nods at Baekhyun’s words.

This time, Baekhyun uses one of his hands to cup Yixing’s face, thumbing his jaw, hoping it’ll help put him at ease. It seems to work as he’s met with no resistance this time; instead he feels Yixing’s lips meld easily into his own, all tension gone. And it’s nice as Yixing's lips slide against his own and he starts to nip at Baekhyun's bottom lip. Baekhyun swipes his tongue across Yixing's bottom lip, tasting a faint hint of the ramen from earlier, before Yixing slips his tongue between parted lips. Baekhyun feels a hand run up his side and to the nape of his neck, pushing him in closer to deepen the kiss. And Baekhyun now can say that this isn’t just one of his daydreams, that he really is here with Yixing like this. He’s always imagined Yixing’s tongue to be sinful, but this is so much better—with the way Yixing smoothly traces over Baekhyun’s tongue with his own and over his teeth. It has Baekhyun moaning quietly into the kiss and pressing a little harder. And as much as he loves it, it’s scary when it feels like Yixing is stealing his breath away; Yixing’s own too sweet, too hot, too inviting, but Baekhyun finds he can’t get enough. He wonders if Yixing feels the same.

Minutes go by and Baekhyun can feel Yixing slowly pulling away, only pressing light, quick kisses to his lips. Baekhyun finally pulls back, breathless, but all it takes is a mere second to lean in and close the distance once more. Baekhyun melts into it and lets out a small gasp when he feels Yixing’s cold hands slide up his sides.

“Is this okay?” Yixing asks and Baekhyun giggles when Yixing starts to thumb the skin just above his hip.

“It is,” Baekhyun says as he pecks Yixing on the lips. “Just a bit cold—your hands—but I’m trying to warm you up, remember?”

“I think it’s already working,” Yixing smiles before cupping Baekhyun’s face with both hands and kissing him softly. He pulls back to pull Baekhyun down towards the floor so Baekhyun can hover over him, his forearms caging Yixing’s head.

“You really want this?” Baekhyun asks to be sure. “I mean, do you really want me?”

“Baekhyun,” Yixing says so sweetly that Baekhyun has to stop himself from leaning in and kissing Yixing again. “Did you forget what almost happened at my house? Where you told me to pretend we weren’t student and teacher? How I told you I wanted _you_.”

“I—we—it still—it’s dreamlike,” Baekhyun stutters to explain and all Yixing does is give a small chuckle before raising his head a bit to kiss Baekhyun lightly on the lips.

“It’s real,” he smiles as Baekhyun feels a hand slip under his shirt and run down his back. “Or do you need some extra reassurance?” he smirks and Baekhyun’s eyes go wide when he feels Yixing’s other hand slide into his sweats to grope his ass.

With help from Yixing’s _extra reassurance,_ there’s no hesitation from either when their lips touch and move languidly against each other. It’s something Baekhyun could get used to, _wants_ to get used to, as his lips part and Yixing’s tongue curls inside and flicks teasingly against his own. And definitely wants to get used to the way Yixing’s hands clutch onto his back and trail up and down his side. But there’s only so long he can handle just kissing Yixing so he sits up, bringing Yixing along with him.

“Something wrong?” Yixing asks and Baekhyun shakes his head.

“Does your shirt being on count?” Baekhyun asks with a raise of his brow and Yixing snorts.

“Do something about it then,” Yixing says as he leans back to rest his weight on his forearms.

Baekhyun all too happily slides Yixing’s shirt up to bunch above his chest. His eyes never leave Yixing’s, wanting to soak in every single reaction he’ll give as he takes the time to trace over each line to Yixing’s abs, loving how it feels beneath his fingertips. He flattens his palm against Yixing’s chest and swipes his thumb across his nipple and enjoys the way Yixing’s breath hitches slightly. Baekhyun then smooths his hands up Yixing’s sides until they meet his shirt. Yixing automatically reaches behind his own back to pull his shirt over his head and tosses it behind himself before returning to resting his weight on his forearms. Baekhyun watches as Yixing bites down on his bottom lip, probably in anticipation of what’s to come. Baekhyun hooks his fingers onto the band of Yixing’s sweatpants and tugs the fabric down and holds still. A nod of Yixing’s head urges Baekhyun to continue.

With Yixing’s help, Baekhyun frees him of his pants and Baekhyun swallows hard as he settles himself between the other’s legs. To see a stripped Yixing nearly bare before him is something Baekhyun never thought would happen. But here he is, here _they_ are, waiting for someone’s next move. And it’s Yixing who moves first, grabbing and tugging Baekhyun down so their hands can lace and lips can meet again and again and again. It’s Baekhyun who makes the second when he reluctantly pulls away, making Yixing whine, to kiss along his jaw and down his neck, leaving tiny marks behind. His kisses start to travel down his chest and along his abs and back up again. Baekhyun loves how Yixing’s muscles tense and relax, arching into every single touch of his fingers, press of lips, roll of his tongue. There's a certain pleasure in knowing that _he’s_ the one making Yixing get so worked up as he kisses and nips along his thighs, that he's the one forcing out those soft moans. It's addicting, and Baekhyun doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

 

 

“That should be good enough,” Baekhyun says as the fire cracks loudly and steadily grows. They’ve relocated to a room a floor above the one the group shares, this time with a window to vent the smoke from the fire. “Or you think I should find more stuff to add?”

“It’s good,” Yixing says from where he’s propped up against a wall. He holds out his blanket covered arms and says, “Now hurry and come here,” with a smile.

Baekhyun can’t help but grin as he settles himself between Yixing’s legs so they can sit back to chest. They work together to fold the blanket over themselves so Yixing’s arms are free to wrap around Baekhyun’s waist. It takes more effort than Baekhyun wants to use, but when Yixing holds him close, Baekhyun can’t help but smile and is thankful there’s an excuse of the weather for them to cuddle. Baekhyun doesn’t know how long they stare at the fire before Yixing clears his throat to speak.

“Are you alright?” Yixing asks as his grip around Baekhyun’s waist tightens.

Baekhyun stops looking at the fire to tilt his head back and gaze up at Yixing. “What do you mean?” Baekhyun asks in return.

“You know, about the world ending,” Yixing says quietly. It’s nearly a whisper when he adds, “No one’s really talking about it anymore.”

“Who would want to?” Baekhyun says more as a statement than a question. Avoiding this particular topic, at least out loud after Yixing’s constant reassurance they’d make it somehow, has helped keep him sane, thinking maybe if he never voiced that their situation has only become worse life would return back to normal soon. But that isn’t reality. He knows they’ll all be screwed eventually; it’s just a matter of when. “I don’t know really,” Baekhyun admits. “I don’t know if my family is safe, if my friends are safe. It’s scary.” Baekhyun waits for Yixing to say something, but gets nothing but Yixing lazily stroking over the mark he left on his stomach. He continues, “It’s scary to know that this is how we’ll be spending our last days and we can’t do a single thing to stop it.”

Yixing kisses Baekhyun’s temple and then says, “We’ve made it this far.” Baekhyun sighs, not really liking how hopeful Yixing sounds.

“Yeah and?”

“I think it’s a sign we’ve still got much further to go.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes and Yixing’s response is to connect their lips, just briefly, before placing a kiss to Baekhyun’s cheek as well. “I’m being serious.”

“I know, it’s just—what if things don’t work out?”

“It’s better than being negative,” Yixing sighs. “I’d rather not think of the alternative anyway. What’s the fun in that when I could think of how meeting each other’s friends and family would be like. Or attempting to make you dinner for our first anniversary. Stuff like that.”

“You’re thinking of stuff like that already?”

“Why not? You are my boyfriend.”

“I am?” Baekhyun asks, shocked that Yixing would suggest that so soon. But his heart still speeds up with anticipation and prays this isn’t a joke. Baekhyun maneuvers himself to face Yixing directly while keeping their blanket cocoon somewhat intact. Yixing adjusts the blanket while Baekhyun adjusts his legs to wrap around Yixing’s waist. “This isn’t some one-off thing because of circumstance?”

“I’d like to think that after the semester ended, you would have asked me out,” Yixing says as he pulls Baekhyun as close as possible. Baekhyun wraps his arms around Yixing and hooks his chin onto his shoulder. Yixing then continues, “And I would have been apprehensive at first, but agreed. Then we would have dated and did all those cheesy things that couples normally do. Circumstance just sped things up a bit. I like you a lot.”

“Ah, that would have been nice,” Baekhyun says, somewhat bitter that it’ll never happen now. He then moves once again, back to his original position.

“Baekhyun, look at me,” Yixing commands and said man turns his head to look at him.

Yixing slowly presses his lips to Baekhyun’s, slowly drags his tongue across Baekhyun’s lips, and slowly coaxes them open for Baekhyun to give the tiniest of whimpers as he melts into the kiss. And Baekhyun hates how easily it is for Yixing to get him to relax and not be so upset with the way the world is now, but he supposes that’s the effect his _boyfriend_ would have on him. By the time they part, Baekhyun is left smiling.

“Yixing,” Baekhyun starts as he loosely threads their fingers together. “Tell me about our future together then.”

“Thought you didn’t want to be all positive,” Yixing teases.

“It’s better than being negative,” he says echoing Yixing’s words from earlier.

“Then let’s start with what we’ll do once we get out of this building,” Yixing begins. “We’ll probably at some huge evacuation shelter first. It’s not that romantic, but we’ll be together.”

“Ah, really?” Baekhyun says, voice light. “Then what?”

“And there we’ll run into Minseok and Jongdae and Chanyeol and I think you’ve mentioned roommates before so them too.”

“Jongin and Kyungsoo. Oh! And while we were having our little adventure, Chanyeol’s probably made a lot of progress with Sehun. So Sehun would be there too.”

“And we’d have to include Junmyeon and Seulgi.”

“Those three company seniors?”

“Can rot,” Yixing says so calmly that Baekhyun laughs so hard and to the point where his stomach starts to hurt.

From there, Yixing tells of what the first years of their life together would be like—mostly helping rebuilding society as they sneak away at least three times a week for date nights. Or mornings. Whichever Baekhyun is in the mood for, according to Yixing. And of course they’ll manage to get in touch with their relatives when society is back on its feet and send postcards just to be different. It sounds like a complete fantasy world, but Baekhyun is captured by every word that leaves Yixing’s lips. And by the end of it, Baekhyun has a tiny bit more faith that things will change for the better.

 

 

 

The next several days feel like they go by in a blur. It’s hard to remember when the day ends and begins, but Baekhyun thinks it all has to do with Yixing being a wonderful distraction. When they aren’t eating or talking to the group, their time is spent kissing and touching with more kissing long after they’ve come down from their highs. Junmyeon always gives them a knowing look every time they get up to leave while Seulgi just smiles and tells them not to be gone for too long out of worry. The other three never say a thing.

 

 

 

“How many packs do we have left?” Seulgi asks when Junmyeon and Yixing return from the break room with their meal.

“Six,” Junmyeon answers as he and Yixing carefully set the pot down and then sit next to Seulgi and Baekhyun respectively. “We could try and eat three tomorrow and then three the next day and then move on to the vending machines. Those aren’t much, but it’s something.”

“We’re probably going to die soon so might as well eat them all tomorrow,” Jaeyoon coughs. “We should enjoy our last days. Those two certainly have been,” he says looking between Yixing and Baekhyun.

“Let’s vote on it,” Seulgi suggests quickly and Baekhyun sends a thankful smile her way. “Who wants to eat the rest of the ramyeon tomorrow?” Of course the three seniors of the company vote to eat it all. “Then I assume the rest of want to do three and three?” Everyone else nods. “Then it’s settled. We—”

“But those two aren’t part of this company,” Minkyu interrupts with. “They’re lucky we even let them stay. Therefore, their votes don’t count.” Baekhyun’s heart sinks as he looks at the other two men, smug looks on their faces

“Do you disagree?” Jaeyoon asks, as his eyes dart back and forth between Junmyeon and Seulgi, challenging either one to speak. Baekhyun can tell both are conflicted, their company seniors probably have helped them a lot in the past. It doesn’t seem wise to eat all tomorrow when they could stretch it for two, but trouble is the last thing they need. _Stay quiet,_ Baekhyun mouths to both Seulgi and Junmyeon and they nod. “Now it’s settled.”

There’s no talking amongst any of the younger adults. But the other three laugh and stuff their faces full as they eat. Baekhyun makes sure to hold onto Yixing’s hand the entire time as he thinks of their entire situation. He knows they could be dying, but he’d rather spend one more living instead of greedily eating their food supply away. He doesn’t understand how they can be so selfish now when they seemed somewhat decent, just standoffish, until now. It doesn’t sit well with Baekhyun and if they’re starting this behavior now then he doesn’t want to know how far having absolutely no food will push them. He can’t be around for it.

After dinner is over, Baekhyun pulls Yixing off the ground and wraps the blanket around his boyfriend.

“Going off again, huh?” Heejun shouts as Baekhyun and Yixing are just outside the door.

Baekhyun turns his head and shouts back playfully, “Got to enjoy these last days,” and shuts the door behind them. They quickly make their way to what has become their room. “We should leave,” Baekhyun says as soon as the door is shut and locked. “Tonight.” Yixing laughs and shakes his head and Baekhyun knows he isn’t taking this seriously when he tries to kiss him. “Yixing, babe, we need to leave _tonight_ ,” he says as he pushes Yixing away.

Yixing sighs and sits on the floor, pulling Baekhyun with him. “Baekhyun, it’s freezing out there. We wouldn’t get far,” Yixing counters. “It’s not realistic.”

“I don’t care. I can’t wait here for them to turn on us, for them to force Junmyeon and Seulgi into a decision they don’t want to make,” he starts to ramble in a panic and continues, “It’s only been twenty-three days. They’ve never liked any of us and what they did was just the beginning. What are they going to do when the vending machines dry up?”

“You’ve watched way too many movies.” Yixing tries to bring Baekhyun close to himself, probably to get underneath the blanket with him, but Baekhyun resists and stands. He then starts gathering material for a fire.

“The world is ending, Yixing. That’s already movie-like. If we’re going to die, I’d rather not be miserable by the end of it.”

“And where would we go?”

“A few buildings over?” Baekhyun suggests as he throws random objects to light into the wastebin. He then takes out his lighter to set a piece of paper on fire and throws that into the bin as well. “Most were closed by the time the flood happened.”

“What other building is as tall as this one?”

“We just need one that’s tall enough to get into by window and pray the ice doesn’t crack when we try to walk on it.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want? It’s cold out there and we might—”

“Yixing,” Baekhyun cuts him off with. He then goes to his boyfriend to move the blanket out of his way and straddles his lap, hands resting on his shoulders. “My gut is telling me that I need to leave. Whether you come with me or not, I’m leaving.”

“Baekhyun, you can’t just—we need to talk about this,” Yixing says, clearly frustrated.

“We are talking and I’m telling you I’m leaving.”

“Baekhyun I—I don’t know,” he says weakly.

Baekhyun sighs and rests his forehead against Yixing’s, already resigned to the fact that this may be one of the last moments they have together, saddened by the fact that their relationship ended before it could really begin. That little sting in his chest will be a bittersweet memory one day.

“It’s okay,” Baekhyun whispers. “We weren’t together for that long and it isn’t like we were in love,” he tries to joke. “Student-teacher relationships hardly work out anyway.”

It takes a few minutes for Yixing to quietly say, “But I want to be, one day,” as his hands come to hold Baekhyun at his waist.

“Want to be what?”

“In love with you one day, so we should at least say goodbye to Junmyeon and Seulgi.” Baekhyun is left speechless, but he doesn’t have to say a thing as Yixing closes the distance and places the softest of kisses onto his lips. “All that talk about a future together wasn’t for nothing,” he says and kisses Baekhyun again.

“Are you sure? You weren’t a minute ago.”

“Positive,” he firmly states and Baekhyun’s chest feels lighter, relief slowly sinking in followed by the utmost joy in knowing Yixing wants a future with him. “We should look around to see if we can find any hats or gloves or just anything to keep ourselves covered.”

“But first, I need you to kiss me,” Baekhyun says and then quickly adds, “A lot.” Yixing laughs and suddenly Baekhyun finds himself being pinned to the floor with Yixing right between his legs. His arms loop around Yixing’s neck and he can’t help but laugh now too. “Didn’t know we needed to be in this position to kiss.”

“We don’t,” Yixing says and kisses the corner of Baekhyun’s lips. “But we’re going to do a lot more than kissing.”

Baekhyun bites down on his bottom lip and wraps his legs around Yixing’s waist before Yixing is leaning down to kiss him. But not even a minute goes by when there’s a knock at the door, making the both of them groan. Yixing gets up to answer the door while Baekhyun sits and waits to see who interrupted them.

When Yixing opens the door, Baekhyun doesn’t expect to see Junmyeon and Seulgi standing before him. Yixing lets them in without a word and locks the door.

“Is something wrong?” Yixing asks as he comes to sit by Baekhyun near the fire. The both of them shake their heads.

“We just wanted to apologize for earlier,” Seulgi begins. “We should have said something. It wasn’t right.”

“It’s fine. We’re leaving tonight anyway,” Baekhyun says, shocking both Junmyeon and Seulgi.

“But why?” Junmyeon asks, concern lacing his voice. “There’s nowhere to go and the cold will kill you before you could get that far.”

“It’s better than waiting here to die because of them. We’ll go once they’re asleep.” Baekhyun then tacks on, “We aren’t going that far. Just a few buildings over,” as if it’ll make things better.

Seulgi moves from where she stands to sit beside Yixing. Junmyeon then walks over to take a seat next to Baekhyun.

“Your seniors, something seems off about them and after today, we don’t know what other stunt they’ll pull so it’s best for us to go as soon as possible,” Yixing gives as further explanation.

“Then we should go with them,” Seulgi says to Junmyeon. “You know we’ve never trusted them and it’ll be us against them if we stay.”

“Alright,” Junmyeon easily agrees.

Baekhyun huffs, slightly annoyed at how simple it was for Seulgi and Junmyeon to join, but getting Yixing to do so felt like a struggle.

“What’s wrong?” Yixing asks as he lays his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“Nothing, just kind of tired,” Baekhyun lies. He can’t let Yixing know it was over something silly. “So a little after they fall asleep is a good time to leave?” Everyone nods their head in approval. “Yixing and I will try to find some stuff we can use to protect ourselves from the cold. We’ll try and break in the rooms that are locked. You two come meet us here when they fall asleep.”

“Can I borrow your bag Yixing?” Junmyeon asks before he leaves.

“Sure. It’s in the main room,” Yixing says.

“What do you think he needs it for?” Baekhyun asks when their friends have left.

“Don’t know. But let’s start searching?”

“Kisses first,” Baekhyun says as he taps on his own lips.

“Ah, you’re right,” Yixing chuckles as he pushes carefully at Baekhyun’s shoulder to get him to lie on his back and gets back in between his legs. “Kisses should definitely be first,” is all he says before leaning in.

 

 

Baekhyun sits atop a desk, swinging his legs back and forth as he waits for Junmyeon and Seulgi to arrive. They were able to break into a few rooms thanks to Baekhyun and a single chopstick. They managed to find two pairs of gloves, five scarfs, and a single winter hat for protection. Yixing comes back into their room with a roll of duct tape.

“What are we going to do with this?” Baekhyun questions as he takes the tape from Yixing.

“For whoever doesn’t have gloves,” Yixing explains and then further adds, “We’ll tape the ends of their hoodie sleeves down so their hands won’t cold.”

“You’ve already planned for that to be me and Seulgi haven’t you?” There’re only three of them with hoodies on and Junmyeon wears a suit jacket.

“Ah, look, they’re here,” Yixing deflects. He’s lucky Baekhyun can hear the door click open.

“Hey,” both Seulgi and Junmyeon greet, Yixing’s black bag on Junmyeon’s back.

“What’d you need it for?” Baekhyun asks as he points to the bag.

“Oh,” Junmyeon starts with and then explains, “I emptied one of the snack vending machines and took a few waters from the fifth floor’s. I also took a few extra notebooks for Yixing.”

“Good idea.”

“But how are we getting into the next building?”

“Yixing found a hammer in a supply closet and is going to break a window when we get there. Let’s get ready to go.”

Baekhyun and Seulgi do end up as the ones with their hoodie sleeves taped shut as Junmyeon and Yixing take the gloves. Junmyeon ends up with the hat and two scarfs as the other three have their hoods to cover their heads. Any patches were air could get through are covered by duct tape before they cut their blankets in half to wrap over themselves. When they’re all bundled and ready to go, they head for the second floor, cautious with each step.

There’s a large window at the end of the hall that Junmyeon and Yixing have to carefully and quietly take out so the glass won’t break and the guys upstairs won’t hear. It takes longer than Baekhyun wants and Yixing has to keep telling him to be patient. Junmyeon gets him to be quiet with one glare. Once the window and its screen it out, Junmyeon lowers the bag to the outside ground and then lifts himself up onto the window’s edge and slowly steps down onto the ground. He jumps on the ice a few times to make sure it won’t crack. It doesn’t.

“Baekhyun, you next,” Junmyeon calls.

With Yixing’s help, he gets onto the ledge and then looks down. There’s a good foot between the ground and window. Baekhyun takes a deep breath and with Junmyeon’s guidance, Baekhyun is on the ground in a few seconds. Seulgi goes next, getting out of the building even faster than Baekhyun. As soon as Yixing is on the other side with them, they begin walking, arms linked. The closest building that they’re able to reach by window is about fifteen yards away.

Not even a minute goes by and Baekhyun feels like he’s going to die at any moment from the cold. Despite meticulously making sure the wind couldn’t get to them, their clothes are far from winter wear and the cold pierces his skin with each new step. And he wants to go faster, but it’s hard with the wind blowing against them and cold already making him feel numb. His eyes begin to sting and he loses his breath more and more the further they go. Baekhyun sees the building they need to make it to and hates that it’s close yet still out of reach. It’s brutal and Baekhyun wants to give up, but he tells himself that he made the choice to come out here with a hastily put together plan. He tells himself that he isn’t the only one suffering. There’s Yixing and Seulgi and Junmyeon who are going through this together. He tells himself he wants a future with their friends and family by his and Yixing’s side. Baekhyun tells himself repeatedly he can’t give up, but his body does so anyway when his legs give out and he collapses to the ground.

He thinks he hears Yixing and Junmyeon and Seulgi all screaming at him to get up and keep moving, but there’s a ringing in his ear that drowns it out. And he wants to keep going, he really does, but his legs don’t want to cooperate and his lungs are making it hard to breath. He never really could handle the cold; Baekhyun doesn’t know why he thought this would be different. At least he can say he didn’t die miserably, but did trying for a better life, away from people who would have caused him pain and with those who he’s sure he’d have grown to love. He tries to move his feet one last time, but just like before, it doesn’t work.

Baekhyun tries to tell them to leave him be, but he feels himself being dragged across the ice. His knees hurt from the friction and he cries out for them to stop and he thinks it works when he feels himself no longer in motion. But his friends haven’t let go and he knows they haven’t reached their new home yet. He tries to tell them to go on without him again, but anything he says is drowned out by the sound of his friends shouting over him and some weird noise that gets louder and louder with each passing second.

Baekhyun tries to look up to get a glimpse of what above could make that kind of noise, but all he can see is Yixing leaning over him, telling him they’re okay. Yixing holds him to his chest as a dark cloud approaches them. He then feels himself being lifted from the ground, foreign arms secure around his body as he’s placed inside some huge container. Baekhyun takes in the new view of dark walls and nearly panics when he feels his clothes being torn from his body. He calls out for Yixing and Seulgi and Junmyeon, but can’t place their faces to those who hover above him. The last thing he remembers is Yixing’s voice saying _it was only us four,_ before he passes out.

 

 

 

Everything feels heavy from the top of his head to the tips of his toes as Baekhyun slowly starts to stir from his sleep. His eyes open weakly, bright light almost blinding him. He peers down to see Yixing sleeping, head and arms resting on the bed while his body sits in a chair. Baekhyun almost closes his eyes until he realizes he’s in a bed and hasn’t slept in one in nearly a month. He takes in his surroundings even more—white walls and white curtains is all he sees—and then notices his left arm is connected to two different IV drips. He groans to himself, wondering how long he’s been in this place. Yixing would know the answer. Baekhyun raises his hand reaches over to comb his fingers through Yixing’s hair. Yixing’s reaction is instant—he shoots straight up and stares directly at Baekhyun, tiny grin on his face.

 _“Finally,”_ Yixing sighs as he stands up to sit down where his head once was and takes both of Baekhyun’s hands into his own. “You scared me. _You scared all of us._ ”

“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun coughs, throat feeling incredibly dry. Yixing hands him a half full bottle of water and he gulps it down with ease. “I thought I could do it,” he chokes out, ashamed that he gave up.

“If it weren’t for you, we’d still be back there.” Yixing runs his hand through Baekhyun's hair. “We have a future because of you.”

“But—”

“No buts,” Yixing states firmly. Baekhyun frowns, causing Yixing to laugh. “Stop being so cute when you’re supposed to be resting.” The comment makes Baekhyun blush.

“Then where are we? Can I ask you that?”

Yixing laughs as he says, “Of course.” He then clears his throat to continue, “We’re at what they call the Safe Zone, number five to be exact. It’s where they’re helping all the survivors. You’re in the medical ward.”

Baekhyun doesn’t speak right away, letting the news sink in. He’s not dead or freezing away in some building for protection. He’s somewhere warm and safe and getting help for whatever the hell happened to him out there. Baekhyun can feel the tears that begin to fall and he starts to laugh. “We made it and I’m not dead,” Baekhyun says when his laughter dies down a bit and Yixing starts to gently wipe at his face. Yixing then leans down to kiss Baekhyun softly, both smiling into it. “We really made it,” he says when they part, still amazed they made it to a safe zone out of all places. It makes him have hope that his loved ones survived too. Then he realizes something’s missing—his friends nowhere in sight. “Where’s Seulgi and Junmyeon?”

“Around somewhere. I’ll go look for them now.”

Yixing makes the move to get up, but Baekhyun keeps a tight grip on his hands. “Not right now,” Baekhyun says softly. “Just us for a few more minutes.” Yixing nods and gently lies down next to Baekhyun.

It doesn’t seem real as Baekhyun takes Yixing’s hands into his own and begins to play with his fingers. One minute he thinks he’s about to die and now he’s alive. _Alive and safe._ He never thought he could make it this far, but he knows Yixing is his reason surviving for as long as he did out there. He doesn’t want to imagine what life would have been like without Yixing. So Baekhyun closes his eyes and dreams of Yixing, dreams of their future.


End file.
